Pipeline protesters gather on Capitol steps

To date, the federal government has still not created criteria for emergency response plans, argues the National Wildlife Federation.

“This pipeline is already one pinhole leak away from wreaking havoc upon the Great Lakes”, said Mariah Urueta, Michigan organizer for the group Food and Water Watch.

A conservation organization has begun the process required for it to sue the U.S. Transportation department, saying the agency has failed to require pipeline owners to come up with safety response plans for worst-case oil spills.

Citing federal data, NWF said oil pipelines cross inland bodies of water at 5,110 locations in the United States.

Kagan says the National Wildlife Federation plans to sue the US Department of Transportation if officials don’t take steps to comply with the law within 60 days.

Pipeline safety has been a hot-button issue in Michigan for the past five years, starting with the 2010 rupture of Enbridge Energy’s underground oil pipeline near Marshall.

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the state Capitol Thursday, calling on lawmakers to decommission an oil pipeline that crosses the Straits of Mackinac.

“Line 5 poses an immediate threat to both the waters of the Great Lakes and the people who depend on them”, David Holtz of the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter said in a statement.

Earlier this month, a task force led by Attorney General Bill Schuette and state Department of Environmental Quality Director Dan Wyant called for more pipeline transparency, more study, and a ban on heavy crude in the straits pipe. It’s that space where pipelines cross rivers and streams that the National Wildlife Federation leader says isn’t protected.