Wisconsin tribe and other groups move to block pipeline reroute plans

MADISON, Wis. — A northern Wisconsin tribe along with a coalition of groups moved Thursday to block plans to reroute an aging pipeline around the tribe's reservation, arguing state regulators have underestimated the environmental damage that construction would cause.

The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa filed a lawsuit in Ashland County asking a judge to stay the state Department of Natural Resources' environmental impact statement for the project and reverse state construction permits. The tribe also joined with a number of other groups, including Clean Wisconsin, the Sierra Club and the League of Women Voters, in petitions Thursday demanding a hearing on the approvals.

The tribe and its allies argue in the lawsuit and hearing petitions that the DNR couldn't legally approve the reroute because Enbridge didn't show how it would minimize harm to state waterways and wetlands, and the company is underestimating the impacts while overestimating its ability to restore the environment.

“In my view, the DNR failed our children when it gave Enbridge the permits to build this reroute," Bad River Chairperson Robert Blanchard said in a news release announcing Thursday's actions. “As a tribal chairman and an elder, it's my responsibility to protect the generations still to come. That is why we are fighting this reroute in court.”

DNR spokesperson Molly Meister declined to comment.

Enbridge officials said in a statement that the reroute proposal has gone through rigorous reviews and studies, and that the new challenges will delay an economic boost for northern Wisconsin. The company promised the reroute work would create more than 700 jobs and preserve the flow of energy that millions of people across the region need every day.

Line 5 transports up to 23 million gallons (about 87 million liters) of oil and natural gas daily from Superior, Wisconsin, through Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario, in Canada. About 12 miles (19 kilometers) of the pipeline run across the Bad River's reservation on the shores of Lake Superior in Ashland County.

The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019 to force the company to remove the pipeline from the reservation. The band argued land easements allowing Enbridge to operate on the reservation expired in 2013 and the 71-year-old pipeline is prone to a catastrophic spill that would devastate the local watershed and ruin the tribe's sacred wild rice beds.

A federal judge ultimately ruled that Enbridge must remove the pipeline from the reservation by 2026. The energy company has asked a federal appellate court in Chicago to review that decision.

Enbridge has proposed a 41-mile (66-kilometer) reroute around the reservation's southern border. The tribe and conservationists oppose that plan, saying construction efforts would pollute the environment and the reroute would only perpetuate the use of fossil fuels.

The DNR issued state permits for the reroute in November. The project still requires permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Michigan’s Democratic attorney general, Dana Nessel, filed a lawsuit in 2019 seeking to shut down twin portions of Line 5 that run beneath the Straits of Mackinac, the narrow waterways that connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Nessel argued that anchor strikes could rupture the line, resulting in a devastating spill. That lawsuit is still pending in a federal appellate court.

Michigan regulators in December approved the company’s $500 million plan to encase the portion of the pipeline beneath the straits in a tunnel to mitigate risk. The plan is awaiting approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.