The Great Lakes are known for their sweeping beauty and crystal clear waters. They are a destination for recreational boaters and fishermen. Tourists spend billions of dollars in the eight states and two Canadian provinces that share the lakes’ 10,000 miles of shoreline.  But hidden beneath the surface of the lakes, dozens of pipelines carry oil and gas every day. One of them lies underneath the waters of Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac.

A recent analysis shows more than 5 million jobs are directly connected to the five Great Lakes, generating 62 billion dollars in wages. More than 40 million people get their drinking water from the Great Lakes.

In this new half-hour documentary, Detroit Public TV’s Great Lakes Bureau examines the controversy surrounding the Line 5 pipeline built by Enbridge Inc., a pipeline that was constructed and placed on the lakebed between Michigan’s Lower and Upper Peninsula more than a half century ago. It operates under the water near the Mackinac Bridge in a spot that’s considered one of the most scenic areas of the Great Lakes and is known for its strong currents between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

This film will take viewers on a journey across the Great Lakes to hear voices on all sides of this issue, including residents who live in a community devastated by the nation’s largest inland oil spill along Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. 

We’ll hear directly from Enbridge about Line 5 and the way the corporation has tried to learn from its mistakes.

We’ll see how the controversy over the pipeline has transcended politics and raised awareness about the use of our natural resources and the vital importance of clean drinking water.