(The Center Square) – The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval in October of Enbridge permits for a reroute of Line 5 around the band’s reservation in Wisconsin.
The Band is hoping to block permits granted by the corps for a 41-mile reroute of the Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin.
It has separately challenged permits approved by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and is waiting for a ruling in that case.
“For more than a decade, we have had to endure the unlawful trespass of a dangerous oil pipeline on our lands and waters,” Bad River Band Chairwoman Elizabeth Arbuckle said in a statement. “The reroute only makes matters worse. Enbridge’s history is full of accidents and oil spills. If that happens here, our Tribe and other communities in the Northwoods will suffer unacceptable consequences. From the Bad River to Lake Superior, our waters are the lifeblood of our Reservation. They have fed and nurtured our Tribe for hundreds of years. We will do everything in our power to protect them.”
The pipeline transports more than 500,000 barrels of crude oil and natural gas liquids each day through the reservation.
“This reroute will mean blasting, horizontal drilling, and trenching across hundreds of wetlands and streams,” Earthjustice Managing Attorney Gussie Lord said in a statement. “It will likely do permanent damage to the Band’s treaty-protected water, plants, and medicines – all for the enrichment of a foreign oil pipeline company.”
