Army Corps of Engineers Approves Enbridge’s Line 5 Pipeline Reroute
The new stretch of the oil pipeline would run through Ashland and Iron counties.
A post marks where Enbridge’s Line 5 crosses the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa on Friday, June 24, 2022. The Canadian energy firm is proposing to reroute Line 5 for 41 miles around the tribe’s reservation. Danielle Kaeding/WPR
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday issued a federal permit to a Canadian energy firm that wants to reroute its oil and gas pipeline around a northern Wisconsin tribe’s reservation.
The agency’s website states the Army Corps issued a permit for construction activities tied to Enbridge’s Line 5 relocation project in northern Wisconsin. The company is proposing a $450 million plan to build a new segment of Line 5. The new stretch of 30-inch pipe would run 41 miles around the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Ashland and Iron counties.
“The approval of the Enbridge Line 5 reroute application is a great success and will advance the president’s energy dominance agenda for America,” Adam Telle, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, said in a statement.
Telle said the permit decision represents a “balanced approach to infrastructure development and environmental regulation consistent with statutory direction.”
The agency had been reviewing Enbridge’s application for a permit under the Clean Water Act. The Corps is regulating construction-related activities in federal waters affected by the project, as well as Enbridge’s proposal to drill underneath the White River.
Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner said in a statement that the issuance of the permit is a “major project milestone.”
The project would cross close to 200 waterways and temporarily affect around 101 acres of wetlands in Ashland and Iron counties. Construction would include blasting bedrock and drilling in waterways and wetlands upstream from the reservation and internationally recognized wild rice beds.
The Bad River tribe has argued the project would violate the tribe’s water quality standards. Tribal officials argue the project could increase water temperatures, runoff and contamination.
The EPA concluded this year that data provided by the tribe didn’t show the project would harm the tribe’s water quality. During the Biden administration, the agency found the project could result in “substantial and unacceptable” impacts.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has issued key state permits for the project that are being challenged by the tribe and environmental groups. A contested case hearing wrapped up earlier this month, and parties still have to file briefs before an administrative law judge issues a decision in that case. The DNR said it followed the law when issuing permits for the project.
“We’re confident state permits will soon be confirmed,” Kellner from Enbridge said. “Once that occurs, Enbridge expects the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Proffered Permit to be signed and finalized, allowing construction to move forward.”
Enbridge and its supporters, including labor unions and farm groups, have said the project would maintain a vital supply of energy in the region. They’ve touted the 700 jobs that would be created through the project and its roughly $135 million economic impact.
Opponents have highlighted the company’s track record of spills on Line 5 and other pipelines. They include aquifer breaches on Enbridge’s Line 3 replacement project and a 2010 spill that released more than 1.2 million gallons of oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.
Line 5 carries up to 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily from Superior to Sarnia, Ontario. The tribe sued Enbridge to remove Line 5 from tribal lands after pipeline easements expired on roughly a dozen miles of pipe crossing the reservation.
In 2023, a federal judge ordered Enbridge to pay the tribe $5.15 million for trespassing on tribal lands where easements expired and to reroute or shut down its Line 5 pipeline on the reservation by June 2026. Both the tribe and the company are appealing that decision in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and a ruling is still pending.
Army Corps of Engineers grants federal permit for Enbridge’s Line 5 reroute was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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