(The Center Square) – The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will have another chance to halt construction on a Line 5 pipeline reroute during a Thursday morning hearing at the Bayfield County Courthouse.
The judge will appear live at the hearing via Zoom from Iron County while public viewing of the hearing will be in Bayfield County.
The hearing is challenging Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources permits for the project in response to a petition for judicial review of an administrative law judge’s decision to uphold the permits in February.
The Bad River Band, along with Clean Wisconsin and Midwest Environmental Advocates, asking for construction to be paused because the groups believe that state regulators did not properly apply Wisconsin’s environmental laws and didn’t fully account for the environmental harm from the project.
The permits allow for a 41-mile Line 5 reroute in northern Wisconsin. Permit applications for the project were initially submitted in 2020.
The pipeline transports more than 500,000 barrels of crude oil and natural gas liquids each day through the Bad River Band reservation.
