Line 5 Pipeline: Michigan Tunnel

Line 5 crosses more than 280 rivers and streams, many of which are interconnected and flow to the Great Lakes and the Straits of Mackinac, and throughout which Bay Mills has treaty-protected fishing, hunting, and gathering rights. The Great Lakes are the largest source of surface fresh water in the world, supplying drinking water for 48 million people.

Case Overview

Earthjustice, in partnership with the Native American Rights Fund, represents the Bay Mills Indian Community in the Tribal Nation’s fight to protect the Straits and the Tribe’s treaty rights throughout waters in Michigan.

In 2020, Bay Mills Indian Community became the first Tribal nation to intervene in a proceeding before the Michigan Public Service Commission to contest Enbridge’s proposal to build and reroute the Line 5 oil pipeline with a tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac, a 4-mile-wide waterway that connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

The Public Service Commission is one of the agencies that will determine whether Enbridge can build a massive tunnel to house a new segment of its Line 5 pipeline.

In 2010, Enbridge was responsible for the largest inland oil spill in our nation’s history when another of its pipelines (Line 6B) released nearly one million gallons of oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.

In a related case, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is challenging the environmental review of a plan by Enbridge Energy to relocate part of the Line 5 pipeline where it runs through the Bad River watershed. Earthjustice is representing the Bad River Band in its legal fight.

Bob Gravelle, Bay Mills Tribal citizen, fishes on Spectacle Lake in Bay Mills.
Bob Gravelle, Bay Mills Tribal citizen, fishes on Spectacle Lake in Bay Mills. (Whitney Gravelle)

Case Updates

May 18, 2025 In the News: Chicago Tribune

Tribes fear fallout for Great Lakes as feds fast-track Line 5 pipeline

Stefanie Tsosie, Attorney, Tribal Partnerships Program, Earthjustice: “There are no conditions that can be imposed on the project, as designed, that will ensure that it doesn’t violate the Bad River Band’s water quality standards. (The) standards are in place to protect human health, wildlife and aquatic life … the richness and the diversity of the band’s reservation waters.”

May 9, 2025 In the News: WLUC

Enbridge Straits Maritime Operations Center Watches over Mackinac Straits

Debbie Chizewer, Managing Attorney, Midwest Office: “It would violate the rights that were guaranteed to them through treaties that go back to the 1800’s. The tunnel is not the answer to the problem of Line 5. The answer is to get the oil out of the Great Lakes so we can all enjoy drinking the water, swimming safely, and fishing for decades to come.”

April 29, 2025 In the News: Inside Climate News

Citing Trump Emergency Order, Army Corps Expedites Review for Line 5 Oil Pipeline in Great Lakes’ Wetlands

Julie Goodwin, Attorney, Midwest Office, Earthjustice: “We know that there is no national energy emergency.”