Michigan Tribes Ask Judge to Toss Line 5 Tunnel Permits

Four Tribal Nations in Michigan have petitioned state regulators for a contested case to challenge a pair of permits that authorize Canadian company Enbridge to build its proposed Line 5 oil tunnel below the Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes. The Tribes seek to overturn the wetlands and bottomlands permits that Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) approved for Enbridge in July. Those permits face new uncertainty after the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision overturning a different permit for the tunnel, which raises questions about whether EGLE’s decision also failed to comply with the law. 

Bay Mills Indian Community President Whitney Gravelle said: “The proposed tunnel is a trap designed to keep Line 5 operating throughout Michigan for generations to come. Tribal Nations have treaty-reserved rights and a sovereign responsibility to protect the Great Lakes, and those rights cannot be ignored to preserve the interests of a foreign oil company. There are safer alternatives that do not require Line 5. It is time for Michigan to right this wrong by honoring its commitments to Tribal Nations and choosing a future that protects our waters rather than locking us into future generations of risk.”  

The new challenge was filed on the heels of the annual Mackinac Bridge Walk. On Monday, around 1,000 people from all 12 Anishinaabe Tribal Nations in Michigan walked across the bridge to demonstrate opposition to the Line 5 tunnel in response to a unified call to action by the ancestral Three Fires Confederacy. 

Earthjustice Managing Attorney Debbie Chizewer said: “Over the past year, tens of thousands of Michiganders have raised their voices and called on Governor Whitmer’s administration to reject the tunnel. The permits were granted anyway. Now, it’s up to all of us to protect this country’s greatest freshwater resource before it’s too late. Whether it sits in open water or in a tunnel, the Line 5 pipeline has no place in the Great Lakes.” 

Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Managing Attorney David Gover said: “The Line 5 tunnel project, if allowed to proceed, will irreversibly destroy tribal cultural resources including burials, tribal lifeways, and the Straits of Mackinac, a sacred space for the Anishinaabe. In fact, the Department acknowledges this destruction and highlights that the impacts to these irreplaceable cultural resources “exceeds that of any other that EGLE has reviewed.” Yet, somehow, this project would satisfy the public interest criteria if the impacts to these cultural resources are mitigated. To be sure, there is no way to properly mitigate these impacts. Only permanent destruction will occur. We look forward to judicial review of this legally deficient permit, especially in light of the Michigan Supreme Court’s recent decision clarifying the Michigan Environmental Protection Act and its application to these types of projects.”

The Bay Mills Indian Community, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians are represented by Earthjustice and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is represented by Kanji & Katzen, PLLC.  

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