A federal judge on Thursday said that he is unlikely to shut down an oil pipeline on the Bad River reservation in northern Wisconsin, despite the tribe’s arguments that the line is at immediate risk of erosion and rupturing. However, he said a time may come when he’ll have to intervene.
U.S. District Judge William Conley said the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa didn’t prove an imminent threat exists along a stretch of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline where large sections of nearby riverbank have been washed away in recent weeks due to erosion from spring flooding.
“The band has not helped itself by refusing to take any steps to prevent a catastrophic failure at the meander,” Conley said. “You haven’t even allowed simple steps that would have prevented some of this erosion.”
The tribe says less than 15 feet of land now stands between the Bad River and Line 5 along a meander on the reservation. In some places, more than 20 feet of riverbank has eroded in the past month alone. Experts and environmental advocates have warned in court that an exposed section of the pipeline would be weakened and could rupture at any time, causing massive oil spills.
Enbridge has repeatedly asked the tribe for permission to place sandbags along the riverbank to prevent erosion. It also requested a permit Monday to install barricades made of trees to protect the pipeline.
Tribal officials have not approved any of the company’s requests. Conley said the tribe’s inaction undermined its repeated claims that the pipeline must be shut down.
“It looks like a strategy, even if it’s just idiocy,” he said. “I’m begging the band to just act. Do something to show you’re acting in good faith.”
Conley planned to issue a ruling in the coming weeks that would set standards for when he would authorize a shutdown of Line 5 on the river.
“There’s going to come a time when there will be an imminent risk that will require me to step in,” he said.
The Bad River tribe argues Line 5 poses an unreasonable risk to the health and safety of its members, the Bad River Watershed, and Lake Superior.
However, Enbridge says the pipeline has been operating safely in the Bad River Watershed despite the erosion of the river’s banks.
“The exposure of the line won’t lead to a rupture. The evidence that was submitted is that you need a span of 100 feet or more before the pipeline could rupture,” Paul Eberth, director of U.S. tribal relations for Enbridge, told the outlet. “So just exposure doesn’t necessarily precipitate a rupture and emergency today.”
The Bad River tribe first filed a federal lawsuit in 2019 to force the company to remove the roughly 12-mile section of Line 5 that crosses tribal lands, saying the 70-year-old pipeline is dangerous. That followed the tribe’s refusal to renew easements for the pipeline that had expired in 2013.
Conley sided with the tribe in September, saying Enbridge was trespassing on the reservation and must compensate the tribe for illegally using its land. But he would not order Enbridge to remove the pipeline due to concerns about what a shutdown might do to the Great Lakes region’s economy.
Instead, Conley told Enbridge and tribal leaders in November to create an emergency shutoff plan. His ruling said there was a significant risk the pipeline could burst and cause “catastrophic” damage to the reservation and its water supply.
Built in 1953, Line 5 transports up to 23 million gallons of light crude oil and natural gas liquids each day over 645 miles from the city of Superior through northern Wisconsin and Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario.
If the pipeline were shut down, gas prices would likely increase, refineries would close, workers would be laid off, and the upper Midwest could see years of propane shortages, according to reports Enbridge submitted in court.
Enbridge has proposed a 41-mile reroute of the pipeline to end its dispute with the tribe and said in court filings that the project would take less than six years to complete. But the tribe has not granted the permits Enbridge needs to begin construction. A draft analysis of the project’s environmental impact submitted in December 2021 received thousands of public comments, with many criticizing the report as insufficient. The company is still responding to the tribe’s requests for more information.
