MACKINAC, Mich. — A newly released federal report lays out how a barge dragged an anchor across the oil pipeline that runs beneath the straits of Mackinac.
Federal investigators have said human error and mechanical failure probably caused the anchor to damage transmission cables and that that's how Enbridge's Line Five Pipeline was damaged.
This is according to a report released by the National Transportation Safety Board. That report found crew on board a tugboat failed to lift the anchor.
They say one of the crew members thought the anchor was broken and could not be dropped in the first place. The report says no one double checked the barge before it passed through the Straits.
The anchor tore through about $100 million in electrical cables along the lake bed and that caused an insulation chemical to leak into the water.
After the report was released, Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a statement.
She says she's ready to take legal action and she wands the controversial Line Five Pipeline to be shut down. She says all of the enforcement mechanisms in the world will not prevent another tragedy like this anchor strike.
The report comes the same week Governor Gretchen Whitmer told Enbridge to have an agreement on the timeline for the pipeline to be decommissioned.
Environmental groups say the only way to eliminate risks in the straits is to get rid of the pipeline.
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