A potential rerouting of 12 miles of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline has Indigenous communities outraged over the havoc the proposed 41-mile section could wreak on the environment. Leaders from nine Indigenous groups—all women—submitted a 22-page letter last month calling on agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers to reject permits for the project, citing Enbridge’s troubling history of violations. The leaders provided concrete examples of how the company has consistently prioritized fossil fuels over the community it claims to serve.
“Enbridge proposes using horizontal directional drilling (HDD) under 14 rivers that flow into the Bad River Reservation, including the White, Marengo, and Bad Rivers,” they explained, citing Enbridge’s own proposal to make way for the pipeline. “In Minnesota, Enbridge’s HDD practices resulted in frac-outs at 28 sites along Line 3’s route,” the letter continues.
“This occurs when the drilling mud is forced outside of the boring tunnel and enters groundwater, at times reaching the surface. The company polluted surface water at 63% of HDD sites, including at the Mississippi headwaters, and released an undisclosed volume of drilling fluid into aquifers. Line 3 construction workers also violated permits when they breached at least three artesian aquifers, releasing 280 million gallons of groundwater.”
With the community concerned over the more than 900 waterways upstream that would be impacted by the reroute, leaders are understandably calling Enbridge’s plans “an act of cultural genocide.”
Unfortunately, the polluter has chosen to fight back using tactics that include targeting individual tribal members and staff. As Indian Country Today reported this week, Enbridge demanded that community members be questioned under oath about their opposition to renewing the easement that brought the original 12-mile section through the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa reservation in the first place. Luckily, a judge denied that request.
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The legal tactics stem from a countersuit brought by Enbridge in 2021 following the tribe’s decision to sue the company in 2019—two years after voting against renewing the easement. Calls to completely eliminate Line 5 have been only growing louder within the community; more than 200 organizations signed the tribal leaders’ letter in a show of incredible support.
Enbridge has attempted to counter that with messaging claiming consumers would be negatively impacted were Line 5 to shutter, which a January study already disproved. The company also claims that rerouting the pipeline and keeping Line 5 in operation will provide immense economic benefits for the community in the near term, boasting that it aims to employ up to 700 union workers. It’s a classic tactic from fossil fuel companies that has little basis in reality. Time and again, studies have shown that marginalized communities face the worst consequences of the oil and gas industry while receiving few—if any—economic or employment benefits.
As Indian Country Today notes, this fight isn’t over: The lawsuit brought forth by the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians is expected to go to trial in the fall, and multiple actions are planned ahead of that in opposition to Line 5.
