Bad River Band requests Enbridge Line 5 cessation of oil flow

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 22, 2019

Mashkiiziibi (Bad River) Band requests Enbridge line 5 cessation of oil flow

Bad River Tribe discovers 48 feet of line 5 uncovered and significant stretch unsupported at Denomie Creek Watershed site slope #18 at Odanah, WI

Odanah, Wl, August 22, 2019- On August 21, 2019, Bad River Natural Resources Department and technical experts discovered over 48 feet of exposed pipeline on Enbridge line 5 at the Denomie Creek site identified as slope # 18. Various interactions with storm events combined with the natural unpredictability of the land and water have naturally eroded enbankments throughout the area.

Photo of 48 feet of Enbridge Line 5 pipe unsupported and exposed to the elements at the Denomie Creek tributaries on the Bad River Reservation

Tribal staff and technical experts are currently on site analyzing the threat and have been directed to prepare for emergency management response. Over the last few years, Bad River NRD has been communicating to Enbridge that these right-of-ways need to be continually and routinely monitored and brushed because of the natural changes of the landscape and threats the pipeline poses. Slope# 18 represents an area that Enbridge bas not presently brushed and maintained on the surface.

In a letter dated August 21, 2019 from Chairman Michael Wiggins, Jr. to Enbridge President Guy Jarvis, Wiggins states, “I do not need to tell you that the discovery of this exposed and unsupported stretch of pipeline is a highly significant and alarming development.” Chairman Wiggins acknowledged two steps considered by the Band to be essential to addressing the situation: I) The Band requested the cessation of oil flow through the reservation. 2) The Band requested that Enbridge respond and participate in the further investigation of the situation.

The Band filed suit in the Western District of Wisconsin Federal Court on July 23, 2019, asserting invaluable resources at stake and that certain areas were at risk for pipeline exposure.

With over 7,000 members, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians is located on an 125,000-acre reservation in an area within Ashland and Iron Counties on the south shore of Gichi-Gami (Lake Superior). The Ojibwe people have a long and rich heritage throughout the Great Lakes region prior to European contact and through to today. Treaties signed by eleven Ojibwe Tribes ceded millions of acres throughout the region, including what is currently the upper one-third of the State of Wisconsin, but retained the rights to hunt, fish, and gather in the ceded territories, both on and off of their reservation land.

Learn more about the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians online at http://www.badriver-nsn.gov/.