Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians

'Cause I...

Julie, you brought to my attention that construction crews, they breached an underground aquifer beneath the Marengo River, uh, a couple weeks ago in September, while building this 41-mile reroute of Line 5 around the Bad River Band's reservation.

Now, tribal leaders say that Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources only notified them two days after the incident.

This comes after a, th- this breach after this August pipeline incident where more than 1.3 million gallons of natural gas liquids reportedly escaped.

... had anything to do with this.

And tribal leaders are calling for accountability.

I mean, Julie, when the Bad River Band has raised concerns about, you know, all the risks this is pos- putting to, to groundwater and wetlands, I mean, the aquifer was breached.

Mm-hmm.

Enbridge is replacing about 41 miles of oil and natural gas liquid pipeline across Ashland and Iron Counties.

The project has been in the works for seven years after a federal judge ruled Enbridge was trespassing on the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation.

The company was ordered to remove or reroute the line outside the reservation.

Recently, multiple fires on Enbridge construction sites have destroyed company equipment.

On September 28th, Enbridge Energy drilled under the Marengo River during construction.

The river, located in central Ashland and south central Bayfield Counties, is a major tributary to the Bad River watershed.

The company notified the State Department of Natural Resources last week about the release of groundwater estimated at 85 to 100 gallons per minute.

The agency told WPR they are monitoring the incident and working with the company to understand the hydrology under the site.

The company said the water was flowing after installation of a pipe under the Marengo River in northern Wisconsin, and that's now complete.

But it would appear that the release is still ongoing.

An attorney representing the Bad River Tribe said that the DNR and independent environmental monitors informed them that the water was flowing up to 100 gallons per minute, and we asked for an estimated amount of water that's been released, but the DNR and Enbridge haven't provided details on that.

Now we've got this acknowledged leak, but it's not clear whether an aquifer has been breached.

So a short summary.

Um, the Bad River Tribe, which is a Ojibwe tribe-

Mm-hmm

... on Lake Superior that the line ran through, um, the, the easement of that line expired years ago and the tribe has forced them to reroute the line.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

You talk about the Bad River tribe, and I mean, you wanna see a group that has been drawn the short stick time after time after time and just had a hell of a time.

I mean, yeah, make the drive up there.

Yeah.

And I get, I get my wild rice from a friend who's, uh, Bad River.

[laughs]

Oh, yeah, yeah.