The harbor at Superior, Wisconsin
The Council of Canadians has been opposing a plan by Calumet Specialty Products to build a $25 million oil shipping terminal on the western tip of Lake Superior in Superior, Wisconsin.
Today we received word that Calumet has withdrawn all of its applications for the dock project.
Almost two years ago, the Sarnia Observer reported, “Calumet Specialty Products, an Indiana-based company, has been looking into building and operating a crude oil loading dock on Lake Superior, near its refinery at Superior, Wisconsin, and is seeking state approvals. The terminal would load freighters with heavy oil from Western Canada, as well as light Bakken crude from the U.S., to ship to refineries on the Great Lakes.”
The terminal would have been able to load a barge or tanker with up to 110,000 barrels of crude oil every four days. The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel had noted, “Calumet Specialties, a Superior refiner, wants to ship 13 million barrels per year of crude oil across Lake Superior and through the Great Lakes on barges.”
And the National Post had reported, “An oil terminal would allow Canadian crude to travel from Wisconsin across Lake Superior to Lake Michigan, and on to refineries in Whiting, Ind., Lemont, Ill., and possibly Detroit, Mich., near Lake Erie. Other potential destinations could include Sarnia, Ont., on Lake Huron, or even East Coast refineries, [according to the Alliance for Great Lakes].”
Council of Canadians water campaigner Emma Lui has stated, “Calumet’s oil barge dock is on the radar of U.S., Indigenous and Canadian groups and communities, and Calumet can expect a lot of noise if it tries to push this plan through.”
In December 2013, we called on the Wisconsin Ministry of Natural Resources to stop the project. In the letter, Lui wrote, “The plan would increase the amount of tar sands crude shipped on the lakes and not only threatens the lakes but also threatens wildlife and the drinking water of Great Lakes communities.” By January 2014, the Duluth News Tribune had reported, “The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has, at least for now, turned down a permit application to make repairs to a Superior harbor pier that is parts of plans for a possible oil terminal.”
In March 2014, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow wrote in her Liquid Pipeline: Extreme energy’s threat to the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River report, “Calumet Specialty Products wants to ship millions of barrels of oil across Lakes and TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline cuts through the Great Lakes watershed. If governments continue to allow projects like this, what are our lakes going to look like in 20 or 50 years?” She then recommended, “To protect the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River we must ban all transport of tar sands bitumen on, under and near the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.”
For numerous blogs about the Calumet plan, please click here. For more on our campaign to protect the Great Lakes, click here.
