The legal battle over Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 continues its multi-week hearing in Madison, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. The conflict, which has been an issue for years, is centered around a 72-year-old pipeline that runs through 12 miles of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s reservation, according to the article.
The Bad River Band is one of six federally recognized Ojibwe bands in Wisconsin, according to the Bad River Band’s website. The reservation is located in northern Wisconsin along the shores of Lake Superior and Chequamegon Bay.
The Bad River Band is challenging a decision made by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to allow Enbridge to reroute Line 5 for 41 miles around the reservation, according to PBS Wisconsin. The pipeline is currently running directly through 12 miles of the reservation, according to the Wisconsin Examiner.
Enbridge, a Canadian oil company, argued that this pipeline provides essential energy to Wisconsin and other areas, and rerouting the pipeline would create more jobs in the market, according to the Wisconsin Examiner.
The Bad River Band and environmental groups claimed this pipeline is trespassing on reservation land and is at risk of leaking and causing harm to ecosystems, according to the Wisconsin Examiner.
For over a decade now, the Bad River Band has been challenging Enbridge’s right to operate, Campaign Coordinator for Wisconsin’s Sierra Club chapter Jadine Sonoda said. Sierra Club is one of the organizations challenging Enbridge in court.
“Enbridge has really quite a terrible history with construction damages, puncturing aquifers or having frack outs,” Sonoda said.
Installing a pipeline requires extensive blasting, drilling and digging of trenches — which has the potential to damage wetlands, streams and the reservation’s wild rice beds, according to PBS Wisconsin. Environmental groups and the Bad River Band have been concerned for years that the pipeline would spill into Lake Superior or in the Straits of Mackinac because it was not built to last as long as it has, Sonoda said. In 2013, the Bad River Band declined Enbridge’s permit to continue operating on their land, but Enbridge continued to pump oil through Line 5, Sonoda said.
The most recent legal dispute concerns whether Enbridge has the right to operate outside the reservation, yet still within close proximity to it, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. Enbridge proposed rerouting Line 5 around the reservation, replacing the 12 miles on the Bad River Band’s land with 41 miles just outside it, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. This, however, would still put the reservation, Lake Superior and the surrounding area at risk, Sonoda said.
Enbridge and its supporters, on the other hand, warn of potential economic impacts, specifically the possibility of increased gas prices, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. Sonoda said that the economic impact would not be severe.
The use of fossil fuels, including oil, also results in considerable carbon emissions, which can harm ecosystems, their organisms and those living near them, Sonoda said. The Sierra Club hopes to build toward a future that does not rely on fossil fuels, even if that means gas prices increase slightly, Sonoda said.
“If we want to be protective of our future generations and even ourselves, then there’s a lot of work to be done,” Sonoda said.
For what has been emitted into the atmosphere, the effects of climate change have not reached full intensity, and there is still much to be uncovered, Sonoda said.
Another central point of this case is Enbridge’s infringement on Indigenous lands, Sonoda said. If Enbridge rerouted the line, there is the potential for damage to the water, which impacts those living on Indigenous lands and their water supply, Anthropologist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research Matthew Wolfgram said.
“The models we have for producing and living are running us off a cliff,” Wolfgram said. There are many aspects of the Indigenous lifestyle everyone can learn from and should implement to work toward a more sustainable future, since current structures are not working, Wolfgram said.
The commitment and success of the Bad River Band in this battle have been an inspiration all students can learn from, Wolfgram said. He recommended that all his students observe the upcoming hearings and read about them online.
The court heard from Midwest Environmental Advocates on behalf of Sierra Club, 350 Wisconsin, League of Women Voters and Clean Wisconsin from Sept. 3 to Sept. 12., according to the Wisconsin Examiner.
The Bad River Band, Enbridge and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will all present their cases in the coming weeks, according to PBS Wisconsin.
“A tribe in northern Wisconsin can bring that whole operation to a halt by highlighting the injustice of the situation and advocating for their treaty rights,” Wolfgram said.
