Bad River Band Testifies to U.S. Army Corps about Line 5 Dangers

Experts and leaders of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa gave testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday to the US Army Corps of Engineers detailing the harms that Enbridge’s proposed Line 5 reroute project will cause to the Band’s water quality standards, if permitted. The Canadian company is seeking federal approval to construct 41 miles of new pipeline around and upstream of the Band’s Reservation in northern Wisconsin, where the current Line 5 oil pipeline is trespassing.

“The Line 5 pipeline is a daily threat to our clean rivers and lakes, our fish, and our wild rice,” said Bad River Band Chairman Robert Blanchard. “If Enbridge is allowed to move this nightmare upstream to get around our borders, it will only endanger more of our homeland. Our drinking water, our way of life, and our very future hang in the balance. During the hearing, our message to Enbridge and to the U.S. Army Corps was consistent and clear: Issuing this permit will violate our water quality standards.”

During the two-day hearing, scientists and experts for the Band explained how hundreds of downstream wetlands and streams would be polluted by trenching, drilling, and backfilling for the project. Members of the public are scheduled to speak this afternoon. One central concern is that the project will degrade the water quality of the Kakagon-Bad River Sloughs, an internationally recognized mosaic of sloughs, bogs, and coastal lagoons where Band members harvest wild rice. Wild rice is a cornerstone of the Band’s culture and identity, and the Sloughs harbor the largest wild rice bed on the Great Lakes. Material discharged from the pipeline’s construction will have “substantial and unacceptable” impacts on those waters, as the EPA determined in 2022.

In total, the reroute would cross at least 186 waterways and 101 acres of high-quality wetlands, which are critical for protecting human lives and infrastructure during severe floods. Multiple “500-year” and “1000-year” floods have hit the region over the last decade, creating highly risky conditions for an oil pipeline.

“An oil spill along Line 5 is just a matter of time,” said Senior Attorney Stefanie Tsosie of Earthjustice, which is representing the Band. “Enbridge is notorious across the region for its oil spills and aquifer breaches. In fact, one of the largest oil spills in Wisconsin’s history was caused by an Enbridge pipeline several months ago. This week’s hearing covered only a small number of the many good reasons why this project should be denied.”

Enbridge still needs a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has listed the project as eligible for emergency fast-tracking under President Trump’s “Energy Emergency” Executive Order. The agency received over 150,000 comments opposing the reroute after releasing a draft environmental assessment last year. In the meantime, the Band and environmental groups are suing Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources for granting state approval for the project.

“More and more people are waking up to the fact that Americans don’t need this dangerous pipeline in their backyards to have affordable energy,” said Jason Wilhite, Assistant Manager for Patagonia Fulton Market and Great Lakes Business Network Executive Committee Member. “The Great Lakes directly generate over 1.5 million jobs and $60 billion in wages annually. Why would we put our fishing, our tourism, and our clean waters at risk for the sake of a foreign oil company?”