The Bad River and the Great Lakes region face the same threat

The Bad River, or Maski-Sibi, that flows into Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin is endangered by Line 5. This is a pipeline of the Canadian oil company Enbridge Energy, that runs 1,038 kilometers and carries 23 million gallons of crude oil and liquid natural gas per day, from western to eastern Canada.

The Bad River basin is at risk of an oil spill due to this 71-year-old pipeline’s deteriorating infrastructure, creating an ongoing threat to the drinking water on which 40 million people in the region depend. The pipeline invades the lands of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa tribe in Wisconsin and the Bay Mills Indian community in Michigan, and violates their rights and sovereignty.

Proposed Diversion

In response to a lawsuit filed in 2019 by the Bad River Band tribe, Enbridge proposed building a 41-mile diversion of the pipeline around the tribe’s reservation in Ashland and Iron counties. Members of the Bad River Band tribe, along with environmental advocates and more than 150,000 citizens, have called for the entire pipeline to be dismantled, citing the risk this project poses to freshwater sources, Native American tribal lands, and local ecosystems.

The construction of a pipeline diversion will impact hundreds of streams due to trenching, drilling, and filling if the project is carried out. This includes the Kakagon-Bad River sloughs, a unique wetland complex that supports the largest natural wild rice bed in the Great Lakes basin. Members of the Bad River Band have harvested wild rice for centuries here. These internationally-recognized wetlands are the habitat for migratory birds and other species and have been designated as Ramsar sites under the Ramsar Convention—an intergovernmental convention on wetlands that provides a framework for wetland conservation.

Despite widespread rejection of Enbridge’s proposed project, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources approved the permit for the Line 5 diversion. This decision marks a dangerous step backward for the advancement of clean energy and wildlife conservation and raises serious concerns for the  health of the communities and ecosystems in this region.

With each passing day that this pipeline is operating, the risk of an environmental catastrophe increases. A spill would have irreversible consequences for the Bad River basin, wildlife, Native American tribes, and all communities that depend on clean water from the Great Lakes. 

• Watch Mary Mazzio’s documentary on the Bad River.

To read this blog in Spanish, click here.