Judge declares Line 5 pipeline will be shut down: "It’s just a question of when"

Bad River Band logo courtesy Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

By Barbara With and Rebecca Kemble*
Posted May 19, 2023, on Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative
Reprinted here in part with permission

At a hearing on an emergency motion filed by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa on May 18, Western District Court Judge William Conley stated that it was only a matter of time before the 70-year-old Enbridge Line 5 crude oil pipeline that runs across the Bad River Band’s territory would be shut down....

Judge Conley said he would deliver his ruling within the next week or two. In his concluding remarks he said plainly, "There’s going to be a shutdown in this portion in the meander. It’s just a question of when."

Afterward, Bad River Chairman Mike Wiggins issued a statement:

"As a sovereign Tribal nation, we did not file this injunction for protection lightly or frivolously. We’ve watched the river live its life and do what it does as a beautiful, pristine life force within our sovereign boundaries. It’s done what we knew it would, continued to erode and pound away at the meander at a particular place where the pipeline crosses, and it’s within a point of imminent threat of blowing that particular area out and rupturing Line 5...."  CLICK HERE to read the rest of this article on Enbridge's criminal trespass on Bad River land and the recent erosion from the Line 5 pipeline, moving closer and closer to a disastrous rupture, as well as the rest of Bad River Chairman Mike Wiggins' statement following the May 18 hearing.

* Editor's Note: Guest authors Barbara With and Rebecca Kemble are journalists for the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative.