(The Center Square) – The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval in October of Enbridge permits for a reroute of Line 5 around the band’s reservation in Wisconsin.
The Band is hoping to block permits granted by the corps for a 41-mile reroute of the Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin.
It has separately challenged permits approved by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and is waiting for a ruling in that case.
“For more than a decade, we have had to endure the unlawful trespass of a dangerous oil pipeline on our lands and waters,” Bad River Band Chairwoman Elizabeth Arbuckle said in a statement. “The reroute only makes matters worse. Enbridge’s history is full of accidents and oil spills. If that happens here, our Tribe and other communities in the Northwoods will suffer unacceptable consequences. From the Bad River to Lake Superior, our waters are the lifeblood of our Reservation. They have fed and nurtured our Tribe for hundreds of years. We will do everything in our power to protect them.”
The Wisconsin Jobs and Energy Coalition said that it was disappointed in the lawsuit and that
“Today’s baseless lawsuit is another disappointing development in the now nearly six-year effort to relocate Line 5 so it can continue to supply needed energy to our state and region,” the group said in a statement. “The facts are clear. Line 5 has been subject to the most thorough analysis of any project in our state’s history. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency have all reviewed the project at length and concluded it can be done safely and in keeping with our strict environmental standards.
“It’s long past time for the law suits to stop and for the 700 well-trained union workers the project will employ to get to work.”
The pipeline transports more than 500,000 barrels of crude oil and natural gas liquids each day through the reservation.
“This reroute will mean blasting, horizontal drilling, and trenching across hundreds of wetlands and streams,” Earthjustice Managing Attorney Gussie Lord said in a statement. “It will likely do permanent damage to the Band’s treaty-protected water, plants, and medicines – all for the enrichment of a foreign oil pipeline company.”
