MARENGO, Wis. — Enbridge is dealing with another clean-up effort related to its Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin after an aquifer was breached.
The breach happened on Sept. 28 when the Canadian energy company was drilling underneath the Marengo River to install a new stretch of pipe for its reroute project.
According to attorneys with Earthjustice, groundwater began rushing to the surface by a rate of 85 to 100 gallons per minute. Enbridge has been using a vacuum to pump the water into trucks. It’s unclear how much water overall was released.
“The Bad River Band said this would happen, and now it has,” Earthjustice Attorney John Petoskey said in a media release. “Enbridge has gone rogue in north Wisconsin. Their lawless behavior speaks for itself. Wisconsin DNR ought to grow a spine and use their full enforcement authority to protect Wisconsin’s waters and hold Enbridge accountable.”
The aquifer breach comes after other recent spills along the Line 5 reroute project, including frac-outs, diesel spills and the largest release of natural gas liquids in Wisconsin history when over 1 million gallons leaked from a section of the pipeline in Iron County.
Tribal nations and environmental groups have been fighting in court to shut down Line 5 over health concerns and impacts on the local watershed. The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa filed a declaration in federal court last month, summarizing the spills that happened this year alone.
Advocates have also called on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Gov. Tony Evers to do more to revoke Enbridge’s permits for the reroute project. The company ignored demands from the DNR to halt construction on a temporary bypass in Iron County where the natural gas spill happened in August, effectively returning Line 5 to service without obtaining permits for the bypass.
Enbridge was ordered to remove Line 5 from the Bad River reservation in 2019 after a judge found the company was trespassing by continuing to operate its pipeline where land easements had expired.
