On 12/12/24, 350 Wisconsin filed a lawsuit challenging the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) permits for Enbridge Energy’s plan to build a new 41-mile segment of its Line 5 oil pipeline near the Bad River Reservation in northern Wisconsin.
Enbridge’s 71-year-old pipeline currently cuts across the heart of the Bad River Reservation, where it has been trespassing on Tribal land for more than a decade.
In response to legal actions by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Enbridge sought and obtained DNR permits to build a new segment around the Reservation. Rather than removing aging fossil fuel infrastructure that threatens critical ecosystems, these approvals would simply move the risk and harm to the region’s wetlands and waterways, perpetuating our reliance on fossil fuels and further delaying a just transition to clean energy. The proposed project would cross nearly 200 waterbodies and impact more than 100 acres of wetlands.
350 Wisconsin, along with partners Sierra Club and League of Women Voters of Wisconsin with representation by Midwest Environmental Advocates, is challenging the DNR’s decision to issue wetland fill and waterway crossing permits. With the lack of crucial, site-specific information related to blasting operations, hydrological conditions, and the full extent of environmental harm, our petition argues that the DNR could not lawfully approve the construction project. We maintain that Enbridge has grossly understated the damage to wetlands, rivers, and interconnected ecosystems and that the long-term impacts cannot be dismissed as “temporary” or insignificant.
The lakes, rivers, and wetlands throughout our state are important to all Wisconsinites. The effects of climate change imperil our public trust rights to navigation, recreation, and critical natural and cultural resources and our rights to the benefits that these ecosystems provide, including carbon sequestration, flood mitigation, and water filtration.
The Wisconsin DNR itself has acknowledged the fact that the reroute would facilitate the continued use of fossil fuels and would contribute to negative impacts associated with fossil fuel production, transport, and consumption. Yet somehow, the DNR determined that the impacts would not be significant and that the project should move forward, regardless of the human and ecological damage it would cause.
The importance of this moment cannot be overstated. By taking legal action and challenging the WI DNR’s decision regarding Line 5, we’re sending a powerful message: the era of recklessly endangering the environment and our climate must come to an end.
And it starts with us.
Watch the press conference here!