Enbridge Line 5 shut down

[Jon Paul]

According to the crew members of DME and Ballard, the tug Kimberly Ann and barge Big Digger are working on the pipeline supports in question.

[Diver Dan]

The pipeline was recently shut down (both legs) by the courts. although Enbridge just reported that they ran a sensor pig through the west line and it showed no internal damage or changes in thickness. They now have to go back to the court that shut them down, I believe next Tuesday, and ask for permission to restart the west line. The work barges have been out daily, so they may already be working on the damaged anchors for the east pipeline. The Federal pipeline safety board had no issues with them restarting, the shutdown was due to action taken by the Michigan Attorney General's office.

Enbridge currently has small boats stationed out of Mackinaw City, which monitor the pipeline area and run a circle around any ships approaching the pipeline, visually inspecting that the anchors are fully stowed, and contacting the vessel by radio to remind them to take precautions against anything that could impact the pipelines.

The boats are on and off the water at various times, and the inspections usually happen several miles away from the area of concern so you normally don't see the small boats, but they are sometimes shown on the AIS system (numbers only).

Right now I don't know if the boats are out at night or in rough weather, but I'll try to find out. I just know that I don't always see their boats on the AIS even though there are freighters passing through.

[Mr Link]

That is somewhat dated information. Back on June 18th, Enbridge noted that some anchors that hold the east pipe to the lake bed were missing. It also noted scrape marks on the west pipe. It shut both lines down initially but then restarted the west pipe. The State of Michigan went to court and a judge agreed to the state's argument that both pipes need to be shut down until further inspection is done (that is when the Manitoulin Expositor report was written.)

Since then Enbridge submitted more information to the same judge and he or she allowed them to restart the west pipe. So as far as I know, it is running at about 50% capacity.

Enbridge is speculating that the scrape marks on the west pipe were caused by a vessel dragging a cable. But they don't know for sure if that is what caused the scrapes, nor when it might have happened. But it happened within the past year or so.

[jswilson]

I just read in the Manitoulin Expositor that the Enbridge line 5 has been ordered to shut down due to damage to the line. Anybody know any more details?
https://www.manitoulin.ca/judge-orders- ... -pipeline/