ENBRIDGE IS RE-ROUTING ITS PIPELINE IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN
Enbridge (the Canadian company) runs a pipeline through northern Wisconsin and through the Bad River Reservation.
The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe filed a lawsuit and won. Now Enbridge is planning to remove a 12-mile segment of its Line 5 from the Bad River Reservation and bypass the reservation with 42 miles of new pipe.
Enbridge says the line transports an average 540,000 barrels a day between Superior and southwestern Ontario that is eventually used to supply propane to dealers in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Enbridge has asked the state Public Service Commission (PSC) to give it eminent domain authority to take private land in Iron and Ashland counties.
Midwest Environmental Advocates, a Madison environmental law firm, filed a petition on Thursday on behalf of five organizations with the PSC seeking a contested hearing on the matter.
A group of more than 20 landowners and a property rights group filed similar requests, claiming the U.S. Constitution prohibits taking private land except for public use.
Enbridge was responsible for more than 800 oil spills between 1999 and 2010, according to a report by the Polaris Institute. In 2010 a pipe burst in Michigan and spewed more than 840,000 gallons of tar sands crude. This was the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history, polluted 35 miles of the Kalamazoo River, required residential evacuations and took four years and $1.2 billion to clean up.
The DNR held a hearing on July 1 at 4 p.m. via phone or Zoom on Enbridge’s applications to cross public waterways and fill wetlands.
Building the proposed pipeline would affect 109 acres of wetland, converting 29.5 acres of wooded wetland to non-wooded wetland. Enbridge would use trenching or dredging to install pipe under 87 public waterways and would need to temporarily bridge 185 waterways during construction.
Your comments on this are welcome! You can send written comments to dnroeeacomments@wi.gov Or by U.S. mail to Line 5 Comments, DNR (EA/7), 101 South Webster Street, Madison WI 53707. Your comments by be postmarked no later than July 11.
More information at Enbridge Projects webpage: https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/EIA/Enbridge