As we noted last week, the Enbridge matter was back on the agenda of the Groveland Township Board of Trustees meeting on Monday night. We attended in the hopes that Groveland would follow the lead of Brandon Township and add its municipal voice to the chorus of those asking tough but reasonable questions of Enbridge. Unfortunately, we left the meeting deeply disappointed. We had good reason to expect Groveland to show a little Brandon-like resolve. After all, Supervisor Bob DePalma seemed to indicate as much to the local press. The Brandon Citizen, for example, reported:
Following Brandon’s action, Groveland Township Supervisor Bob DePalma said he would also draft a resolution in support of increased safety standards for the pipeline that will be going through Groveland.
And the Detroit Free Press reported:
Groveland Township Supervisor Robert DePalma said he’s skeptical that local government has much authority over the project, which will cross an approximately 3-mile section along the southern portion of his community. He said the township does not have a pipeline ordinance, though it could adopt one that allows for the issuance of permits.
He said he wants assurances that the project will have standards as stringent as plans for a pipeline Enbridge wants to install in western Canada, or he’ll push for a resolution at his board’s Sept. 10 meeting to ask state and federal officials why not.
DePalma also has been in contact with the association about the project.
“The idea here is how we make sure we don’t have another Kalamazoo mess,” he said.
Whether there was some sort of miscommunication or Bob DePalma had a change of mind, we don’t know. What we do know is that Monday night DePalma was adamantly disinclined to take any sort of action in the matter. As for the rest of the members of the Board of Trustees, we have no idea, since with (as I recall) one brief exception, collectively they uttered not a single word on the matter at the meeting.
What was interesting (and surprising), however, is that not one, but two representatives from Enbridge also attended the meeting: our old friend Joe Martucci and another spokesman, Jason Manshum (because two Enbridge spokespersons are obviously better than just one). This is interesting since we know that the first two times Bob DePalma asked Enbridge to attend their meetings (including the one just last month), they declined. Perhaps the prospect of another township passing a resolution (and the media attention such an action brings) induced Enbridge to dispatch Martucci– along with some back up.
Whatever the case, Martucci and Manshum responded to various questions and concerns from residents with their usual mixture of vaguenesses and I’ll-have-to-get-back-to-you-on-thats. They also mentioned, repeatedly, an email they sent to Groveland and others explaining– evidently to the satisfaction of Supervisor DePalma– why the Brandon resolution was inapt. We are currently poring over that document carefully and will post on it soon.
The bottom line: Groveland does not have Brandon’s back. Our best guess about why is this: first, DePalma accepted most everything Martucci told him, taking Enbridge’s word as the “assurances” he needed; and second, DePalma’s fundamental position– he stated this over and over at the meeting– is that anything a local municipality does is pointless and futile anyway, since the project really falls under federal regulatory purview.
Joe Martucci couldn’t have said it better himself.