Enbridge rejects demand to shut down pipeline that runs through northern Wisconsin, Michigan

Posted: Jan 12, 2021 / 08:01 AM CST / Updated: Jan 12, 2021 / 08:01 AM CST

FILE – This July 19, 2002, file photo, shows the Mackinac Bridge that spans the Straits of Mackinac from Mackinaw City, Mich. Enbridge Inc. said Monday, June, 17, 2019, it’s moving ahead with collection of rock and soil samples in the Straits of Mackinac while preparing for a court battle with Michigan’s governor over a planned oil pipeline tunnel there. The Canadian company, which has been drilling into the ground on the south side of the channel linking Lakes Huron and Michigan, said it will begin boring into the lakebed this week from a barge in shallow water. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Enbridge says it will defy Michigan’s demand to shut down an oil pipeline that runs through a channel linking two of the Great Lakes.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November moved to revoke a 1953 state easement that allowed Enbridge’s Line 5 to be placed along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac.

The Democratic governor said the company had violated the terms and put Lake Michigan and Lake Huron at risk.

In a letter Tuesday, officials with the Calgary, Alberta-based company said the issues that Whitmer raised have been fixed and the pipeline meets the easement requirements.

Line 5 runs between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, traversing parts of northern Michigan and Wisconsin.