Ashland, WI – The Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), exercising authority delegated by its eleven member tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, supports the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in its ongoing efforts to protect terrestrial and aquatic environments that sustain their traditional lifeway. Enbridge Energy has proposed to build 41 miles of new pipeline infrastructure in the 1842 Ceded Territory and upstream of Mashkii ziibii, the Bad River Band’s Reservation. The construction and placement of the pipeline would involve blasting, horizontal drilling, or excavation across hundreds of acres of wetlands and public land and miles of streams where GLIFWC member tribes have retained rights to hunt, fish, and gather.
Since 2016, GLIFWC technical staff have studied the effects of the continued operation of the Line 5 pipeline as well as the potential for impacts by the proposed 41 mile reroute. GLIFWC’s cumulative impact and cumulative risk assessments show that Line 5 stands out as a particularly dangerous pipeline by threatening Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron. The area of the proposed reroute drains into the Bad River Reservation and spill analysis from both GLIFWC and Enbridge indicate that oil spilled from the new pipeline section could flow through the Bad River Reservation and enter Lake Superior.
Enbridge’s project received waterway permits and a certification under the Clean Water Act (CWA) from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) in November 2024. The WDNR’s approval is being contested by the Bad River Band before an administrative law judge, starting with a public hearing August 12th. GLIFWC analysis supports the Bad River Band’s position that the pipeline and its construction are a significant threat to the Reservation and the Reservation’s water quality standards. Enbridge used inadequate hydrologic data in its analysis, which drastically underestimates the degree of hydrologic connection between the new pipeline right-of-way and the reservation. This, in turn, led to underestimating the degree and magnitude of contaminant and sediment transport to the reservation where the tribe’s water quality standards apply. The new pipeline right-of-way would also significantly hinder access for tribal members to public lands where treaty harvests occur.
Data and analysis conducted by GLIFWC shows that Bad River’s challenge is based on sound technical and scientific footing. In addition to state permits, the project still requires federal permits from the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), formed in 1984, represents eleven Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan who reserved off- reservation hunting, fishing, and gathering rights in the 1837, 1842, and 1854 Treaties with the United States government. GLIFWC provides natural resource management, conservation enforcement, legal and policy analysis, and public information services in support of the exercise of these treaty rights throughout the ceded territories.
