Bad River Allies Debut "We Stand" Mural, Call for Line 5 Closure
ASHLAND, WI – On June 16, local residents and allies of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa gathered at Memorial Park in Ashland to call for an immediate and permanent shutdown of the Line 5 oil pipeline.
This event marked the debut in Wisconsin of the "We Stand" MURAL 6 ft x 48 ft exhibition. The mural was created in the Superior lakeshore community with dozens of people participating in its creation, ages 8-94.
The Line 5 oil pipeline is a few yards from imminent catastrophe into Mashkiiziibii (Bad River) and Lake Superior. Spring flooding has eroded the riverbank near Line 5's crossing to within feet of exposing the 540,000-barrel-per-day oil pipeline. "At this moment, just one more storm could expose the oil pipeline to the river’s current, and we could experience a release of oil akin to what happened in the Yellowstone River in 2011 or the Arkansas River in 2013," said Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribal Chairman Mike Wiggins.
On Friday, a federal judge ordered Enbridge to shut down the portion of Line 5 that crosses the reservation within 3 years and pay the Band $5.1 million for trespassing.
“The Band appreciates the Court putting an end to Enbridge’s flagrant trespass and disregard for our rights. Tribal sovereignty prevailed over corporate profits,” said Mike Wiggins, Chairman of the Bad River Band. “But the Band’s victory is not a cause for unqualified celebration. We are under no illusion that Enbridge will do the right thing. We expect them to fight this order with all of their corporate might. This is just one step in protecting our people and water.”
The judge ordered Enbridge to adopt its emergency shutdown plan with minor changes within 21 days requiring preparation to purge the pipeline of oil if two markers within 10 feet of Line 5 are lost due to erosion. According to this plan, the pipeline would purged and shut down if a 60-foot span of pipe became unsupported.
An oil disaster would devastate the Band’s fisheries and the Bad River Sloughs, a major source of wild rice (manoomin) for the Band and a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
The Enbridge-provided oil rupture model shows oil contaminating Madeline Island and the Lake Superior coast past Porcupine Mountain State Park.
Enbridge-provided oil rupture model
Enbridge is now seeking to reroute part of Line 5 through more than 100 rivers and streams that flow into the Bad River Reservation and the Kakagon and Bad River Sloughs.
The reroute plan threatens the tribe's fisheries and cultural survival, Copper Falls State Park, numerous trout streams and drinking water aquifers for local residents and family farms along the route.
Construction alone could devastate local aquifers and ecosystems. In Minnesota, Enbridge violated its permits and illegally released hundreds of millions of gallons of water from artesian aquifers during Line 3 construction. The company pumped toxic drilling fluid into groundwater at river crossings and created a massive chemical waste zone where it drilled under the Mississippi River.
Line 5 is a 70-year-old pipeline operating 20 years past its engineered lifespan. Running from western to eastern Canada through northern Wisconsin and Michigan, it lies on the floor of the Great Lakes at the Straits of Mackinac, where a rupture would cause an oil disaster in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. A worst-case scenario oil rupture would cover hundreds of miles of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron coastline in oil.
In November 2020, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer revoked the 1953 easement allowing Enbridge to operate dual oil pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac. In 2021, the Bay Mills Indian Community banished Enbridge from this territory, and many Tribes have called for Line 5 decommissioning. Enbridge continues to defy the shutdown orders.
Enbridge’s own experts predict a shutdown of Line 5 would cause gasoline prices to rise by less than 1 cent per gallon in Michigan and Wisconsin.
The Great Lakes hold one-fifth of the world’s surface freshwater.
Communities United by Water and Native Lives Matter Coalition Great Lakes sponsored the gathering, responding to a call for solidarity from Bad River Band members. Allies are calling on President Biden to order the immediate and permanent shutdown of Line 5.
