8/10/2023 0 Comments Meander greek person![]() The band has been in court with Enbridge since 2019 in an effort to compel the pipeline's owner and operator to reroute Line 5 around its traditional territory - something the company has already agreed to do.īut the flooding has turned a theoretical risk into a very real one, the band argued, and time is now of the essence. Heavy flooding that began in early April washed away significant portions of the riverbank where Line 5 intersects the Bad River, a meandering, 120-kilometre course that feeds Lake Superior and a complex network of ecologically delicate wetlands. "The court is particularly concerned that Enbridge's plan does not account for inevitable delays that could occur due to weather conditions, supply and equipment problems and human error."Įnbridge has also been rebuffed repeatedly in its efforts to perform remedial work on the site, which would include using sandbags and trees to fortify the riverbanks -decisions the band has defended as its sovereign right. The band argues that several weeks of spring flooding along the Bad River has washed away so much of the riverbank and supporting terrain that a breach is "imminent" and a shutdown order more than justified.Įnbridge insists the dangers are being overstated - and even if they were real, the company's court-ordered contingency plan, which spells out the steps it would take, would be a far more rational solution.Ĭonley's order Friday included tweaks to that plan to establish a more "conservative" threshold for the conditions that would trigger it, such as lower water levels and flow rates on the river. In prior court documents, Enbridge has accused the band of being focused on a single outcome: the permanent closure of the pipeline on their territory "while refusing much less extreme alternative measures." Talks between the two countries have been ongoing for months under the terms of that treaty, a 1977 agreement that effectively prohibits either side from unilaterally closing off the flow of hydrocarbons. and Canadian families and businesses, disrupt local and regional economies, and violate the Transit Pipeline Treaty." "Timely government permit approvals" would be necessary to complete the reroute within three years, while relocating the pipe currently on Bad River territory would take about a year, she added.Īny shutdown before then "would jeopardize the delivery of reliable and affordable energy to U.S. "Enbridge's position has long been that a 1992 contract between Enbridge and the band provides legal permission for the line to remain in its current location," Kellner said. If Enbridge fails to do so, the three years will at least give the public and other affected market players time to adjust to a permanent closure of Line 5."Įnbridge's lawyers continue to dispute the finding that the company is trespassing on Indigenous territory and intend to appeal the decision, and may also request a stay pending its outcome, said spokesperson Juli Kellner. "The court will give Enbridge an additional three years to complete a reroute. "Considering all the evidence, the court cannot countenance an infinite delay or even justify what would amount to a five-year forced easement with little realistic prospect of a reroute proceeding even then," he wrote. But Conley wants that project completed more quickly than currently planned. Those issues "involve not only the sovereign rights of the band, but the rights of multiple states and international relations between the United States and Canada."Įnbridge has already agreed to reroute the line, an essential energy conduit for much of the U.S. ![]() In other words, there are "much larger public policy issues" surrounding cross-border pipelines like Line 5 that the band's arguments, while valid, lack the power to overcome, he said. ![]() "The use of trespass on a few parcels to drive the effective closure of all of Line 5 has always been about a tail wagging a much larger dog," Conley writes in his opinion. judge says.Ī rupture on territory that belongs to the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa would constitute a clear public nuisance under federal law, district court Judge William Conley said in a decision late Friday.īut while the order affirms that Enbridge has been trespassing on Bad River land since 2013, when certain permits for the 70-year-old pipeline were allowed to lapse, it stops short of causing "economic havoc" with an immediate shutdown. ![]() must pay an Indigenous band in Wisconsin more than US$5 million in Line 5 profits and relocate the controversial cross-border pipeline within the next three years, a U.S. ![]()
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