A revised environmental impact statement released today on Enbridge’s proposed Line 3 pipeline concludes it’s “unlikely” that a full rupture would result in oil flowing into Lake Superior within 24 hours. The E-I-S says the “sinuous configuration” of the Saint Louis River would likely cause the oil to be stranded on its shoreline and not reach Lake Superior. Nancy Norr with the group Jobs for Minnesotans calls the results “comforting as well as favorable”. She says they’re “very eager to now resume the remaining public process to move this project forward.”
But Andy Pearson with MN350 says a “worst-case spill would be 500 thousand gallons of oil over just 24 hours, and that it would go 20 miles.” Pearson says a similar spill in Michigan cost over a billion dollars to clean up.