The Associated Press + ICT
MADISON, Wisconsin — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Oct. 29 approved energy company Enbridge’s plans to reroute an aging oil pipeline around a northern Wisconsin tribal reservation.
Enbridge wants to build a new 41-mile segment of pipeline around the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to replace a 12-mile segment that now crosses tribal land.
The tribe wants the pipeline off its land. But along with environmental groups, the tribe argues that regulators have underestimated the environmental damage of construction and that the project perpetuates the use of fossil fuels. The opponents are suing to try to reverse construction permits issued by the state of Wisconsin.
But the Army Corps of Engineers approved the separate federal permit on Oct. 29.
“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.
Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge has been using Line 5 to transport crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, since 1953. The company called the federal approval “a major project milestone.”
A decision in the challenge to the separate state permits is expected in the coming months. Construction has been on hold in the meantime.
“We’re confident state permits will soon be confirmed. 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 spokesperson Juli Kellner said in an email.
Environmental groups criticized the Corps’ decision to grant the federal permit as “premature and unlawful” given that the litigation over the state permits is ongoing.
“This is a clear violation of the Clean Water Act. It appears the Army Corps is fast-tracking a fossil fuel project at the expense of environmental protection and legal due process,” Rob Lee, a staff attorney for Midwest Environmental Advocates, said in a statement.
Sean McBrearty, coordinator of Oil and Water Don’t Mix, said in a statement to ICT that potential risks persist.
“While the reroute proposal may remove a portion of the pipeline from tribal lands, the permit fails to address the broader problem: this decision allows continued potential impacts on Bad River Band lands and reliance on a decades-old pipeline carrying millions of gallons of crude oil and natural-gas liquids daily through sensitive ecosystems in the Great Lakes Basin,” he wrote.
“It signals a troubling pattern of fast-tracked fossil-fuel infrastructure approvals that prioritize corporate interests over environmental, tribal, and community protections,” he said.
Oil and Water Don’t Mix is a Michigan-based nonprofit organization composed of advocates who oppose the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline through the Straits of Mackinac.
Bad River tribal leadership did not respond by midday Thursday to ICT’s request for comment on the Corps’ decision, but a statement from the tribe’s council posted on the tribe’s community Facebook page indicated that a council meeting is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 31. at the Chequamegon Hotel in Ashland at 11 a.m. to discuss, “federal court litigation (Enbridge vs. Bad River) for settlement negotiation purposes.”
In a statement emailed to ICT, Kelner with Enbridge Communications described the Corps’ decision as a “‘”major project milestone, and an important step in a permitting process that began more than five years ago.”
“A decision in the challenge to state permits is expected before the end of the year. We’re confident permits will soon be confirmed,” she added.
The Wisconsin project is separate from Enbridge’s plan to build a protective tunnel to encase a different segment of Line 5 in Michigan that runs for 4 miles beneath the Straits of Mackinac, a channel linking Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Applications are still pending before Michigan and federal regulators, and litigation is ongoing.
The Corps fast-tracked that $500-million-plus project in April after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to identify energy projects for expedited emergency permitting.
Conservationists and tribes have balked at the Michigan proposal, calling it too risky and demanding Enbridge simply shut down the pipeline.
Concerns about the Michigan segment rupturing and causing a catastrophic spill have been growing since 2017, when Enbridge officials revealed that engineers had known about gaps in the segment’s coating for three years. A boat anchor damaged the line in 2018, further stoking fears. Enbridge says the segment is structurally sound.
McBrearty wrote the decision has implications for the pipeline in Michigan.
“While this permit decision does not directly affect the pending tunnel-and-encasement permit for Line 5 at the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, it must be seen as a red flag,” he said. “The USACE’s willingness to approve a reroute around tribal land in Wisconsin—even while key state permits remain challenged — signals a likely trajectory of fast-tracking the Michigan segment without full accounting of indigenous treaty rights, cumulative spill-risk, freshwater ecosystem vulnerability, and community consent. This decision puts even more responsibility on the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy (EGLE) for a full, transparent, and inclusive review of Enbridge’s dangerous, proposed Line 5 tunnel.”
ICT National Correspondent Mary Annette Pember contributed to this report.