MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Energy company Enbridge has finally started work on rerouting an aging oil pipeline around a tribal reservation in northern Wisconsin after seven years of legal wrangling, moving ahead despite two new lawsuits that still could delay the project indefinitely.
About 12 miles (19 kilometers) of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline runs across the Bad River Band of Lake Superior’s reservation along the shores of Lake Superior. The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019 to force the company to remove the section from its land, arguing land easements allowing operation expired six years earlier and the 73-year-old pipeline was prone to a catastrophic spill.
A judge in 2023 gave the company until this June to remove the segment from the reservation. The Bad River and conservation groups want the line completely shut down and have kept the reroute project tied up with legal challenges. An administrative law judge upheld Enbridge’s state wetlands permit on Feb. 13, removing the project’s last legal hurdle and clearing the way for construction.
Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner said crews started clearing trees in the new segment’s right-of-way on Tuesday.
The Bad River and a coalition of environmental group filed separate actions in Iron County Circuit Court this month seeking an immediate stay of the wetlands permit, arguing that regulators underestimated the damage reroute construction will cause.
“The Bad River watershed is not an oil pipeline corridor that exists to serve Enbridge’s profits. It is our homeland. We must protect it,” Elizabeth Arbuckle, the Bad River tribal chair, said in a statement announcing the tribe’s filing.
The judges in both cases have yet to rule. A hearing has been scheduled in the Bad River’s case for Thursday.
Kellner, Enbridge’s spokesperson, said that seeking a stay isn’t reasonable given that the project has been heavily scrutinized and the public needs uninterrupted energy. She noted that the pipeline serves 10 refineries and propane production facilities that serve millions of people across the Midwest and Great Lakes region.
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.
Line 5 is at the center of another controversy in Michigan, where conservationists and tribes fear a 4.5-mile (6.4 kilometer) segment that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac could rupture. The straits link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron; a spill in the region could trigger an ecological disaster.
Enbridge has proposed encasing the segment in a protective tunnel. The company needs permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy before construction can begin. Neither agency has issued approvals yet, although the corps has fast-tracked its permitting process under the authority of President Donald Trump’s 2025 energy emergency executive order.
Meanwhile, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel have filed lawsuits seeking to void the easements that allow the line to operate in the straits.
A federal judge blocked Whitmer’s action in December. But the governor has appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether Nessel’s lawsuit belongs in state or federal court.