Federal choose orders Enbridge to close down Line 5 in three years, pay tribe $5 million

The 60-foot-wide Line 5 runs from far Northwest Wisconsin 645 miles into Michigan’s Higher Peninsula, beneath the Straits of Mackinac and out into Canada close to Detroit. It transports about 23 million gallons of crude oil and pure fuel liquids every day.

Testimony at a Might 18 listening to included proof that within the final three weeks of April “there have been three separate, important flood occasions” on the river, Conley wrote in his ruling Friday.

Whereas Line 5 stays buried and properly supported greater than 6 ft underground on the bend, or meander, “the flooding prompted important erosion on the riverbank at and close to the meander, with 3 to 4 ft of riverbank being misplaced in a 40-to-50-hour interval simply south of the meander.”

Conley wrote that “the pipeline could possibly be uncovered in a single, important flooding occasion,” creating the potential for a rupture that may pollute the watershed.

Enbridge has made remediation proposals for the world in danger, however the Unhealthy River Band has authority delegated by the U.S. Environmental Safety Company to manage federal and tribal water high quality beneath the Clear Water Act, Conley noticed in his ruling.

The corporate should pay the Unhealthy River Band $5.15 million in damages that embody disgorged income for the interval for the reason that easement expired, Conley dominated, and to maintain making funds to the tribe each quarter so long as it operates the pipeline.

The choose ordered Enbridge to implement a December 2022 monitoring and shutdown plan for the road and issued an injunction ordering the corporate to “stop operation of Line 5 on any parcel throughout the Band’s tribal territory on which [the company and its subsidiaries] lack a legitimate proper of method and to rearrange affordable remediation at these websites inside three years of the date of this order.”

This story first ran within the Advance‘s sister outlet, the Wisconsin Examiner.