Enbridge, a Canadian energy company, has a plan to build a new segment of their Line 5 oil pipeline around and upstream of the Bad River Reservation in northern Wisconsin.
Yesterday, environmental groups and representatives from the tribe held a press conference highlighting opposition to the project.
In northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Line 5 oil pipeline is a controversial topic.
Everyday, it carries 22 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids from Superior, Wisconsin, under the Straits of Mackinac to refineries in Sarnia, Ontario, 645 miles away.
Some say the project is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, while others point out how many people rely on Enbridge, the pipeline’s parent company, for jobs and energy.
The Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa have been fighting to get the pipeline off their reservation for more than a decade now.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Conley ruled that Enbridge was trespassing on sovereign land, and therefore must remove their pipeline within three years and pay more than $5 million to the tribe.
That shutdown order is now on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Enbridge wants to reroute the 12-mile section of Line 5 that crosses through the Bad River reservation with a new 41-mile pipeline outside the reservation.
Yesterday, environmental groups and representatives from the tribe held a press conference stating their public opposition to this segment relocation project.
Daniel Wiggins Jr. of the Bad River Tribal Council addressed the crowd.
He was concerned about the ramifications of a spill.
“They’re trying to maneuver their way directly along the reservation, not necessarily just creating an environmental justice issues but also creating issues for human beings who live in these pristine areas,” he said.
“It's time to move away from these profits. It's time to get money out of our minds,” he said.
Anya Janssen is a staff attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates, a nonprofit law center based in Madison.
“We believe that the Army Corps has failed to adequately evaluate the threat that this reroute poses to the band’s waterways,” she said.
Janssen said that the Army Corps mischaracterized long-term and potentially irreversible environmental threats as ‘minor’ and ‘temporary’, relying on Enbridge for their information.
Rene Ann Goodrich, Bad River Tribal Elder, spoke on behalf of the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance.
“We do not give you consent to our land, we do not give you consent to our water, we do not give you consent to our bodies,” she said.
Scholarsconfirm that federal laws have left Native women susceptible to higher levels of sexual violence from non-Native perpetrators working on pipeline projects, an issue that Goodrich highlighted at the conference.
Enbridge argues that Line 5 is essential to Ohio and Michigan economies and that a shutdown would threaten union jobs and drive up fuel prices.
They says that Line 5 is safe and reliable, and that if it were shut down, the region would see a 45 % decrease in gas, diesel, and jet fuel.
They also say that there’s no viable options for replacing the volume delivered by Line 5; railways would only be able to provide less than 10% of that volume.
In a statement to WXPR, a representative from Enbridge said an agreement has been reached with all of the landowners along their newly proposed 41-mile route and that they are now just waiting for permits to move forward.
They said the project would “provide important economic benefits to Wisconsin communities, creating 700 direct construction jobs mainly in Ashland, Bayfield, and Iron counties.”
According to Enbridge, “a significant portion of the project’s budget will be spent with Native-owned businesses and communities, and the training and hiring of Native workers.”
After the press conference, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a public hearing on its review of Enbridge’s permit application.
