A billboard promoting Enbridge Inc. (Susan Demas | Michigan Advance)
Opposition continues to grow against the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, after a federal judge ruled the Canadian energy company trespassed on Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa land in 2013. A coalition of faith organizations, environmental advocates, tribal communities, farmers, public health experts, business owners and residents have submitted over 150,000 public comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, opposing the pipeline’s continued operation.
Some of those views were voiced in a virtual press conference Wednesday morning. Gussie Lord, managing attorney for the Tribal Partnership Program at EarthJustice, highlighted the various risks the pipeline could pose. EarthJustice represents the Bad River Band, which sued Enbridge over the operation of Line 5 on the Bad River reservation. Enbridge continued operating Line 5 even after easements with the Bad River Band expired in 2013, with the band declining to renew them. Last year, a federal judge ordered Enbridge to remove the pipeline from the Bad River land by 2026.
As an alternative to shutting down the decades-old pipeline, Enbridge has proposed rerouting Line 5 around the reservation. Outside the reservation, the reroute would create 43 miles of pipeline across wetlands, streams and other ecosystems which are still part of the Bad River Band’s watershed. “There’s 180 river crossings in the Lake Superior basin,” said Lord, noting that wetlands are important for controlling floods, which has grown in severity over recent years.
Before constructing the reroute, Enbridge is required to obtain numerous permits from state and local agencies, as well as permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. On Friday, a public comment period for the U.S. Army Corps will close,. Lord called the pipeline “deeply unpopular,” stating that, “people don’t want this fossil fuel infrastructure entrenched. They don’t want the threats to the Great Lakes.” During a hearing in June, 90 people spoke in opposition to the pipeline while 45 spoke in favor. The trend continued during a hearing on Aug. 5, where 24 people spoke against the pipeline and seven spoke in support of Line 5.
Robert Blanchard, Chairman of the Bad River Band, said, “We’ve been fighting this for quite some time now.” Even today, over a decade after the easements ended, the pipeline continues to operate on the Bad River’s land. “We’re still fighting that,” said Blanchard. “We just don’t want that threat to our lands and our waterways and Lake Superior, our wild rice beds which we are harvesting now…If we were to have something happen right now that could really damage our wild rice crop for many, many years to come and maybe forever. And that’s something that we do not want to see.”
Blanchard also pointed to fishermen who depend on clean water, hunters who depend on clean land and the importance these resources have to indigenous culture and survival. “I’ve hunted, I’ve fished,” said Blanchard, adding that these were crucial to feeding families. “That was a way of life for us,” said Blanchard. “So this is what we are fighting for. Our homelands. Our way of life.”
Climate activists also joined the call. Isak Dragstveit, a college freshman from northern Wisconsin, where his family owns a tree farm, stressed that the Great Lakes hold 85% of fresh surface water on Earth. “Studies suggest over two-thirds of youth in America are plagued by something called climate anxiety,” said Dragstveit. “I too, felt and still feel this anxiety, and chose to convert that ball of energy churning in my stomach into the courage to speak before you today.” The college freshman added, “Line 5 is an investment in a future that doesn’t exist anymore. There’s no return on the money and natural destruction spent on a project that leads to the past.” Invoking the Wisconsin state motto, Forward! Dragstveit called on the Department of Natural Resources and Gov. Tony Evers to oppose Line 5.
Abby Novinska-Lois, executive director of Healthy Climate Wisconsin, discussed Enbridge’s history with oil spills. “Enbridge is responsible for the two largest inland oil spills in U.S. history…The Michigan Department of Health reported that the spill increased neurological and respiratory symptoms, impaired immune system function, and caused reproductive problems.” Novinska-Lois said Line 5 has spilled dozens of times over its history, including a spill in Wisconsin that went unreported by Enbridge for over a year. “We’re speaking up because these spills threaten safe drinking water for millions. Clean water is foundational to public health.”
The sentiment was shared by faith groups, environmental businesses and Wisconsin beef farmer Xander Waters, who said that Enbridge’s main concern appears to be profits. “This is extremely terrifying, with a 70-year-old pipeline that goes through the Great Lakes, goes through Bad River at the highly eroded site,” said Waters. Enbridge has pipeline infrastructure on Waters’ property, he said, adding that dealing with the oil company has been difficult. Waters fears that Enbridge feels that it can simply buy its way out of accountability when a spill happens. “It’s just a horrible decision if the Army Corps should choose to allow the reroute to continue, because it would perpetuate a pipeline that should not be here and is unconscionable.”
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