Underground Construction - February 2021 - 8

NEWSLINE LATEST INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS
Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline
Opponents Sue to Shut Down
Minnesota Construction
Opponents of a pipeline project that crosses three
states have asked a federal court to halt construction
in Minnesota on allegations that the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers failed to address several environmental
issues when it approved a water quality permit.
Two Minnesota Ojibwe bands and two environmental groups filed a lawsuit in U.S. District

Court for the District of Columbia that asks for a
preliminary injunction to stop work on the Enbridge
Energy Line 3 pipeline that began early January
across northern Minnesota.
Line 3 starts in Alberta and clips a corner of North
Dakota before crossing northern Minnesota en
route to Enbridge's terminal in Superior, Wisc. The
337-mile (542.35-kilometer) line in Minnesota is the
last step in replacing the deteriorating pipeline that
was built in the 1960s.

Filed by the Red Lake Bank of Chippewa, the
White Earth Band of Ojibwe, the Sierra Club and the
environmental group Honor the Earth, the complaint claims the Corps' decision to issue the permit
authorizing the pipeline violates multiple federal
laws and treaties and is causing irreparable harm.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Nov. 23
issued its " 404 permit " for the discharge of dredged
and filled material into U.S. waters during Line
3's construction. The permit was the last major

Debates Escalate After Officials Charged Over Flint Water Crisis

When a former Michigan public health director
was charged with involuntary manslaughter in
the Flint water crisis, the man who previously held
the job says a chilling thought crossed his mind: It
could have been me.
" I spent 14 years in that chair, " said Jim
Haveman, who served under two Republican
governors - including Rick Snyder, another target
of indictments released Thursday. " I dealt with
anthrax outbreaks, measles, hepatitis, Legionella.
... The list is a mile long. We had to make tough
decisions all the time. "
He contends Snyder, former health chief
Nick Lyon and seven others charged with
various counts in one of the worst human-made
environmental disasters in U.S. history, are
victims of Monday-morning quarterbacking that
makes criminals of government officials guilty of
nothing worse than honest mistakes. Prosecutors,
however, say this is no ordinary matter of wellmeant decisions that backfired.
" Pure and simple, this case is about justice,
truth, accountability, poisoned children, lost lives,
shattered families that are still not whole, and
simply giving a damn about all of humanity, " said
Kym Worthy, a leader of the team that investigated
a catastrophe that has been described as an
example of environmental injustice and racism.
Few would dispute that a tangle of
miscalculations, neglect and hubris led to

FEBRUARY 2021 | UCONonline.com

pollution of the impoverished, majority-Black
city's drinking water with lead. Some experts
believe it contributed to a fatal outbreak of
Legionnaires' disease. But the charges have
escalated a debate over whether state and
local officials crossed a line between
incompetence and illegality.
Those who support prosecution say
conviction and punishment of those most
responsible are essential steps toward making
the victims whole - even after a $641-million
civil settlement reached last year - and
deterring similar misconduct.
To opponents, the charges are vengeful
overreach that could do more harm than
good, discouraging talented people from
working in government and making those
already there excessively cautious - just as
the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need
for boldness and creativity.
Underscoring the high stakes is the
precedent-setting nature of the case. Snyder is
the first governor in Michigan's 184-year history
charged with crimes involving job performance.
Ron Sullivan, a Harvard Law School professor,
said he knew of no such cases in other states.
Governors have been accused of taking
bribes, violating campaign finance laws and
personal misconduct. Sullivan helped prosecute
a former Missouri governor on an invasion-ofprivacy charge involving a sex scandal. But the
Michigan matter, he said, is " odd " and he thinks
the bar for a conviction will be high.
Snyder, who held office from 2011 through
2018, faces two counts of willful neglect of duty.
The indictment says only that he failed to monitor
the " performance, condition and administration "
of his appointees and protect Flint's nearly
100,000 residents, despite knowing the threat.

The Rev. Ezra L. Tillman Jr., pastor at First
Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Flint, said
it's disappointing that Snyder was charged
only with misdemeanors.
" It gives a mirage that ... finally there is going to
be some justice for all these kids' lives that have
been destroyed, all these elderly people whose
lives have been destroyed, " said Tillman, whose
church is a distribution site for residents who still
need clean water. " It's a joke. "
Yet even those charges will be hard to
prove, Sullivan said. Prosecutors will have to
show intentional wrongdoing, not just sloppy
management.
" Negligence, even gross negligence, is not
enough, " he said.
But Noah Hall, a Wayne State University
environmental law professor who took part in
a previous investigation of the case and saw
evidence, including emails between top officials,
said: " These were not innocent mistakes. "
Flint was under the control of a Snyderappointed emergency manager when it
switched its water source from Detroit to the
Flint River in 2014 to save money. Lead from
aging pipes contaminated tap water because
the city followed state regulators' advice not to
apply anti-corrosive treatments.
Despite residents' complaints of rashes, hair loss
and other ailments, Snyder's administration waited
18 months to acknowledge a problem - after a
doctor reported elevated lead levels in children.
Lyon and ex-Chief Medical Executive Dr.
Eden Wells are charged with involuntary
manslaughter in the 2015 deaths of nine people
with Legionnaires'. Authorities said they failed
to alert the public about a regional spike in the
disease when the water system might have lacked
enough chlorine to combat bacteria.

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Underground Construction - February 2021

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