Environment
Enbridge Launches Construction of $450M Line 5 Relocation in Northwestern Wisconsin
Crews have begun to clear the site and mobilize for construction of the 41-mile-long oil and gas liquids pipeline, but legal actions continue.
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The dark blue line on the map shows where the Line 5 pipeline would be built on land around the Bad River Tribe Reservation.
With permits in hand, global pipeline and energy company Enbridge has initiated construction on the long-contested $450-million, 41-mile Line 5 pipeline relocation project in northwestern Wisconsin.
On Feb. 24, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finalized a permit for the project that would include 12 miles around a reservation owned by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Crews began work immediately to clear the site and mobilize for construction, says Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner.
The Corps issued the permit after Wisconsin Administrative Law Judge Angela Chaput Foy issued a decision on Feb. 13, upholding the state permits approved by the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources in November 2024.
Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge, which owns the pipeline that carries crude oil and natural gas liquids from Superior, Wis., to Sarnia, Ontario, submitted the application to the DNR in 2020.
The project's deadline is ticking. In 2023, a judge gave Enbridge until June 2026 to remove the existing segment from reservation land after the tribe sued the company in 2019, seeking to force it to take it out, arguing that the land easements for the 73-year-old pipeline had expired and that it was prone to a spill.
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Noting the project's long history, Kellner called it “the most studied pipeline project in Wisconsin’s history.”
The battle is not over, however, say opponents. The Bad River Band—which is represented by the nonprofit public interest group Earthjustice—filed a motion on Feb. 19 to halt construction until the court can hear its legal claims.
“The Wisconsin DNR approved Enbridge’s Line 5 reroute project in violation of Wisconsin’s environmental laws,” said Earthjustice Senior Associate Attorney John Petoskey in a statement.
“On behalf of the Bad River Band, we are asking the court to review the agency’s unlawful approval and to ultimately toss out the permits for this project,” Petosky added. “We are also asking the court to order a stay that will immediately halt any construction activity until our legal claims can be heard.”
Petoskey said the company plans to use trenching, blasting, horizontal directional drilling and direct boring techniques, which he argues have a record of polluting water and damaging wildlife habitat.
“If constructed, the reroute will surround the Band on three sides—all directly upstream of the Band’s reservation—and will risk seriously harming dozens of acres of high-quality and previously undisturbed wetlands, hundreds of pristine waterways, and countless species and areas of unique importance to the Band,” he added.
Other environmental groups filed a petition in Iron County Circuit Court seeking judicial review and a motion for an immediate stay of construction activities pending a final decision in the case.
“We are more committed than ever to protecting Wisconsin’s waters from the irreversible harm this project threatens to cause,” said Midwest Environmental Advocates Senior Staff Attorney Rob Lee in a statement.
“We believe the administrative ruling incorrectly decided critical legal and factual issues, and we are confident that our efforts to hold DNR and Enbridge accountable to Wisconsin’s environmental laws will ultimately be vindicated,” Lee added.
Although she did not supply any details on firms that would work on the pipeline, Enbridge spokeperson Kellner said it will be built by a Wisconsin contractor, subcontractors and a union workforce and will create 700 union construction jobs.
The DNR’s approval of permits for the project “confirmed any project construction impacts will be temporary and isolated, have no measurable effect on water quality, and would not violate water quality standards,” Kellner said.
Line 5 is at the focal point of another controversy in Michigan, where Enbridge has proposed encasing another pipeline section in a tunnel that would extend 4.5 miles beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Enbridge is seeking permits from both the Corps and the Michigan Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. Neither has provided approval yet, but the Corps has expedited its permitting process in response to a 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump that declared an energy emergency.
Meanwhile, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel have filed lawsuits to invalidate the easements that allow Line 5 to operate in the straits.
In December, a federal judge ruled against Whitmer and Nessel in their lawsuits, but the governor has since appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is deliberating on whether Nessel's lawsuit should be heard in state or federal court.
Line 5 serves ten refineries and propane production facilities, Kellner said.
