Fight Against Line 5 Continues with Tribal Appeal on New Permit
On December 22nd, Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Bay Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, and Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potowatomi filed a notice of appeal of the Michigan Public Service Commission’s (MPSC) issuance of a permit to Enbridge for new construction on Line 5 in the Mackinac Straits. The appeal was the latest development in a years-long public battle by tribes, government officials, Michigan residents and environmental justice groups to stop the reconstruction of Line 5. If greenlighted by state and federal officials, the project would enable Enbridge to operate the pipeline for another century–ignoring an increasingly urgent need to stop public fossil fuel reliance in the face of climate change.
The appeal cited a lack of tribal consultation on the initial construction of the pipeline in 1953–behavior that has continued to be reflected in the MPSC decision to issue Enbridge a permit. A pipeline leak in the Mackinac Straits would be disastrous; endangering the largest surface freshwater source in North America, along with all the ecosystems and people who are connected to it. Within the scope of the appeal, tribes argue that this pipeline endangers the livelihoods, economies and cultural relationships that they have built around the Great Lakes for millenia. A leak threatens treaty rights agreed upon between the U.S. federal government and tribes like the Bay Mills Indian Community, who agreed to cede the Mackinac Straits to the U.S. with the understanding that they would be able to continue their way of life in ceded territories.
Proposed pipeline reconstruction would replace two above-ground pipelines currently running on the lakebed in the Straits with a single underground pipeline reinforced with concrete beneath the lake. This reconstruction is risky; the underground tunnel is untested, and safety experts warn that the proposed project could lead to an underground explosion, according to Native American Rights Fund updates on the case. The current pipeline infrastructure continues to pose a spill threat as the lines are now over seventy years old and have sustained damage in recent years when a barge anchor hit one of the lines. A draft report from the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues released in April found that elsewhere, Line 5 has already leaked at least 33 times and discharged more than 1.1 million gallons of oil in the process.
In 2010, the Canadian oil giant Enbridge was responsible for the Kalamazoo River Oil Spill due to a six foot rupture in one of their pipelines. The spill was recorded as one of the largest in U.S. history, with the EPA recording 1.2 million gallons of oil recovered from the Kalamazoo River over the course of the next four years. Given this history, and the even larger threat posed by the Straits pipeline reconstruction, governor Gretchen Whitmer terminated Enbridge’s Line 5 easement permit in 2021, demanding that they end pipeline operations in the lakes.
Enbridge has since ignored this, continuing to operate the pipelines and campaigning for their reconstruction. But the public fight against Enbridge continues on multiple fronts–over sixty tribes in the region voiced support for Attorney General Dana Nessel’s lawsuit against Line 5, and a recent Wisconsin federal judge ruled in favor of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians in July of last year, ordering the company to shutdown operations in the area.
Now, the tribal appeal in Michigan will go to the state Court of Appeals with opening briefs to be submitted early this year as the fight continues against Line 5. Midwest Environmental Justice Network will continue to post updates as this case unfolds in 2024, check our news page here for the latest.