Bob Gravelle, Bay Mills Tribal citizen, fishes on Spectacle Lake in Bay Mills.
Line 5 crosses over 290 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.
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 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.
Christopher Clark, Attorney, Midwest Office, Earthjustice: “In total they’ve filed nine motions to strike testimony from the record, multiple motions directed at testimony submitted by our client the Bay Mills Indian Community, and this is a very disappointing attempt to silence the voice of Tribes before the Michigan Public Service Commission.”
Christopher Clark, Attorney, Midwest Office, Earthjustice: “It’s quite disappointing and frustrating that Enbridge has taken such an aggressive position to silence the concerns of the tribes.”
Debbie Chizewer, Managing Attorney, Midwest Office, Earthjustice: “It doesn’t make sense for Enbridge to invest half a billion dollars into infrastructure that wouldn’t be needed in 10 years or less, after Michigan transitions away from fossil fuels.”
