After years of legal wrangling, Enbridge begins rerouting pipeline around Wisconsin reservation
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — After a seven-year conflict, energy company Enbridge has finally begun working to divert an aging oil pipeline around a tribal reservation in northern Wisconsin. legal disputeis moving forward despite two new lawsuits that could delay the project indefinitely.
Approximately 12 miles (19 kilometers) of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline runs along Lake Superior’s Bad River Band, which runs along the shores of Lake Superior. The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019 to force the company to remove the section from its land, arguing that land easements allowing the operation expired six years ago and that the 73-year-old pipeline was prone to a catastrophic leak.
In 2023, the judge gave the company until this June To remove the segment from the reservation. Bad River and conservation groups want the line shut down completely and have kept the rerouting project mired in legal challenges. An administrative law judge approved Enbridge’s state wetlands permit on Feb. 13, clearing the project’s final legal hurdle and clearing the way for construction.
Enbridge spokeswoman Juli Kellner said crews began clearing trees in the new section’s transit area on Tuesday.
Bad River and a coalition of environmental groups filed separate lawsuits in Iron County Circuit Court this month seeking an immediate halt to the wetland permit, arguing regulators underestimated the damage the rerouting would cause.
“The Bad River basin is not an oil pipeline corridor to serve Enbridge’s profit. This is our homeland. We must protect it,” Bad River tribal chairwoman Elizabeth Arbuckle said in a statement announcing the tribe’s application.
Judges have not yet ruled in either case. A hearing in the Bad River case has been scheduled for Thursday.
Kellner, Enbridge’s spokesman, said the request to stay is unreasonable, given that the project has been heavily scrutinized and the public needs uninterrupted power. He noted that the pipeline serves 10 refineries and propane production facilities that serve millions of people in the Midwest and Great Lakes region.
Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge has used Line 5 to transport crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin and Sarnia, Ontario since 1953.
Line 5 is at the center of another controversy in Michigan; conservationists and tribes here fear that the 4.5-mile (6.4-kilometer) section that runs under the Strait of Mackinac could crumble. The Straits connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron; A leak in the area could trigger an ecological disaster.
Enbridge proposed covering the section with a protective tunnel. The company must receive permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy before construction can begin. Although the institution has not yet approved fast tracked The permitting process is under the authority of President Donald Trump’s 2025 energy emergency executive order.
Meanwhile, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit to cancel the easement rights that allow the line to operate in the straits.
a federal judge Blocked Whitmer’s action In December. But the governor appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether Nessel’s case belongs in state or federal court.
