Tribe, groups urge Wisconsin officials to reject Line 5 plan | News, Sports, Jobs

An above-ground section of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline at the Mackinaw City, Michigan pumping station in October 2016. (AP Photo/John Flesher, file)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A tribal leader and conservationists urged state officials Thursday to reject plans to relocate part of an old pipeline in northern Wisconsin, warning that the threat of a catastrophic leak would still exist along the new route.

About 12 miles of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline crosses the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation. The pipeline carries up to 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas daily from Superior, Wisconsin through Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario.

The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019 to force the company to remove the pipeline from the reservation, arguing that the 71-year-old line is prone to a catastrophic leak and that land easements allowing Enbridge to operate on the reservation expired in 2013.

Enbridge proposed a 41-mile reroute around the reservation’s southern boundary. The project requires permits from several government agencies, including the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Part of the permitting process calls for the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program, a division of Gov. Tony Evers’ Department of Administration, to rule on whether the diversion complies with state coastal protection policies.

Bad River Chairman Robert Blanchard told division officials during a public hearing on the question that the diversion would be adjacent to the preserve and that any runoff could affect the preserve’s waters for years to come.

Other opponents, including representatives of the National Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club, warned that construction of the new trail could harm the environment by exacerbating erosion and runoff. The new route would leave dozens of waterways vulnerable to a spill, they added.

They also argued that Enbridge has a poor safety record, pointing to a rupture in Enbridge’s Line 6B in southern Michigan in 2010 that released 800,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River system.

Supporters countered that the rerouting could create hundreds of jobs for construction workers and state engineers. The pipeline supplies power to the entire region, and there are no feasible alternatives to the rerouting proposal, Emily Pritzkow, executive director of the Wisconsin Building Trades Council, said during the hearing.

Enbridge did not immediately return a voice message seeking comment on the hearing.

It is unclear when a ruling might come. Department of Administration spokeswoman Tatyana Warrick said it’s unclear how a finding of incompatibility would affect the project because so many other government agencies are involved in issuing permits.

The company only has about two years to complete the rerouting. U.S. District Judge William Conley last summer ordered Enbridge to shut down the portion of the pipeline that crosses the reservation within three years and pay the tribe more than $5 million for the intrusion. An Enbridge appeal is pending in a federal appeals court in Chicago.

Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit in 2019 seeking to shut down the dual portions of Line 5 that run under the Straits of Mackinac, the narrow waterways that connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Nessel argued that anchor strikes could rupture the line, leading to a devastating spill. That lawsuit is still pending in a federal appeals court.

Michigan regulators in December approved the company’s $500 million plan to enclose the portion of the pipeline under the straits in a tunnel to reduce the risk. The plan is awaiting approval from the US Army Corps of Engineers.