In Wisconsin, state regulators have issued an environmental impact statement, outlining their assessment of rerouting part of Enbridge Line 5.
Currently, the 71-year-old oil and natural gas liquids pipeline runs through the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
The easement for the pipeline expired 11 years ago. A court battle ended with a federal judge ordering Enbridge to cease operating Line 5 on the reservation by June 2026.
Enbridge has proposed a couple of plans to build a new section of pipeline around the reservation, amounting to about 41 miles of pipeline crossing a couple dozen creeks along the way.
Beth Wallace is the Great Lakes climate and energy director for the National Wildlife Federation. She said the Bad River Band opposes the plans, largely because the the rerouted pipeline would still cross the reservation's watershed.
“They are very firm in the fact that this pipeline has outlived its life and it should be removed. And moving it to the headwaters of their treaty-protected land is not an appropriate action.”
The Bad River Band wants the government to shut down Line 5.
“It’s heavily opposed not only by the Bad River Band themselves, but also by many people. In fact, we just had 150,000 people submit comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to say, ‘Do not expand this pipeline that just turned 71 years old,’” Wallace said.
The Army Corps of Engineers is also considering another Enbridge project, a tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac to house another portion of Line 5.
One of those decisions is being made by the Army Corps district based in Chicago and the other by the district based in Detroit.
Wallace and others believe the Corps should be looking at the whole length of Line 5, instead of just pieces. They said it poses a threat to the entirety of the watersheds where its buried, all of which flow to the Great Lakes.
In a statement, Enbridge said the pipeline project will “infuse millions of dollars in construction spending into local communities,” and it will keep energy flowing to Wisconsin and the rest of the Great Lakes Region.
Editor's note: Enbridge is a sponsor of WCMU. We report on them as we do with any other organization.