The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has filed a lawsuit against the US Army Corps of Engineers to halt construction of a 41-mile addition to Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline. The tribe argues the project threatens wetlands, rivers, and treaty-protected resources essential for wild rice harvesting. Earthjustice, representing the band, claims the federal permit violates environmental laws.
Each August, the Bad River Band harvests wild rice, known as manoomin in Ojibwe, from shallow waters in northern Wisconsin's Great Lakes region. This practice, vital to the tribe's culture and sustenance, now faces risks from Enbridge's plan to reroute its aging Line 5 pipeline around the band's 124,655-acre reservation.
In October, the US Army Corps of Engineers granted Enbridge a permit for the 41-mile extension, which would cross at least 70 waterways using explosives and horizontal drilling. The lawsuit, filed by Earthjustice, contends this permit ignores the National Environmental Policy Act and Clean Water Act. It highlights how leaks could contaminate the watershed flowing into the reservation, endangering rice beds and fishing grounds. "For hundreds of years, and to this day, the Band’s ancestors and members have lived, hunted, fished, trapped, gathered, and engaged in traditional activities in the wetlands and waters to be crossed by the project," the complaint states.
Line 5, operational for over 70 years, originally crossed the reservation in the 1950s without tribal consultation, despite treaties from 1842 and 1854 guaranteeing hunting, gathering, and fishing rights. Enbridge's history includes major spills: over a million gallons into Michigan's Kalamazoo River in 2010, and 69,000 gallons in southern Wisconsin last year—initially underreported as two gallons.
The band's legal fight builds on prior victories. In 2019, they sued to end pipeline operations on reservation land; a 2023 federal ruling ordered removal within three years and a $5.1 million fine for trespassing. Under the Biden administration, the Corps opted for a quicker environmental assessment over a full impact study, limiting tribal input.
Gussie Lord, an Earthjustice attorney from the Oneida Nation, described the push for fossil fuels as a "backward-looking playbook." She noted the uphill battle but emphasized the band's duty to safeguard the environment for future generations: "We need people who are going to be thinking about what makes sense, for the future, not just 10 years from now, but 50 years, 100 years from now."
Enbridge plans to intervene, stating the permit remains unsigned and not yet final. The band has also sued Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources over state approvals. Similar disputes rage in Michigan, where tribal nations challenge a Line 5 segment under the Straits of Mackinac.
