The Fate of Enbridge’s Line 5 and What it Could Mean for the Anishinaabe People of Bay Mills

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer dropped a federal lawsuit that intended to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5, a pipeline that runs through parts of the Great Lakes, including parts of Canada. Governor Whitmer first filed the lawsuit after Enbridge refused to comply with Whitmer revoking the easement allowing Line 5 to cross the Straits of Mackinac in fear of an oil spill. Whitmer ordered the pipeline to stop running on May 11, 2021, and declared that any profits brought in by the pipeline past that date will belong to the state of Michigan. The Canadian government supports Enbridge, and all sides in the matter are looking to the Biden administration to take a stance. 

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a separate lawsuit for Line 5 to be shut down in 2019, arguing that the pipeline violates the Michigan Environmental Protection Act. However, the judge delayed action on the case due to overlap with Whitmer’s easement revocation. Whitmer dropped the lawsuit to move Nessel’s lawsuit forward, although the easement revocation is still in effect despite the fact that Enbridge is ignoring the motion,  and continues to operate Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac. 

Built in 1953 by the Bechtel Corporation, Line 5 is composed of two pipelines. They are 20 inches in diameter and travel under the Straits of Mackinac for 4.5 miles. The pipeline is used to heat homes and businesses, fuel vehicles, and the power industry in Michigan. It supplies 55% of the state’s propane needs and 65% of the propane demand in the Upper Peninsula. The pipeline moves 23 gallons of crude oil daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, passing through northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Enbridge regularly inspects the pipeline, and it has not experienced a leak in its 68 years of operation. Even though Line 5 has not experienced any troubles yet, Enbridge has accrued over $6.5 million in repairs and maintenance for Line 5, as well as being responsible for the devastating 2010 oil spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. Enbridge proposed building a tunnel to encapsulate Line 5, which would risk a potential oil spill, even though the project would be intended to prevent one, as well as desecrate Indigenous land. 

The Anishinaabe people of Bay Mills, also known as the Gnoozhekaaning, consider the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Huron and Lake Eerie meet, sacred land. Not only do these waters serve as daily cultural practice sites, but they also provide the local communities, businesses, and tribal members with fish and wildlife. When Line 5 was built in 1953, neither the State of Michigan nor Enbridge received tribal or public consent. Along with Governor Whitmer’s fight against Line 5, the Native American Rights Fund and the Bay Mills Indian Community have teamed up for a similar cause of fighting the proposed encapsulation to protect the local communities as well as the environment. In May 2021, the Bay Mills Indian Community Executive Council passed a resolution for the banishment of Enbridge’s Line 5 from all tribal lands, including the Straits of Mackinac. The Bay Mills Indian Community claims that Line 5 has already experienced various ruptures leading to 1,100,000 gallons of oil spilling from the line and directly impacting resources in the nearby lands. Because the community is recognized as an Indegenous Tribe with a constitution under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Tribe has the right to “fish, hunt, and gather in the ceded lands and waters of the State of Michigan.”  The Bay Mills Indian Community only utilizes banishment for blatantly disrespectful acts towards the community. 

Despite disapproval from local communities, multiple lawsuits, and a terminated easement, Enbridge continues to operate Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac. Enbridge has been blatantly disregarding the local Native American and Indigenous Canadian Tribes since its was introduced in 1953 without the input of the local tribes to begin with. Encroaching upon sacred lands is extremely disrespectful to the native culture, as well as belittling to the Bay Mills Indian Community’s constitutional rights. Along with its impertinence towards local tribes, Line 5 proposes a frightening risk of an oil spill, which could be physically harmful to local communities and their resources. The fate of Line 5 affects more than just revenue for Enbridge, as it trespasses major aspects of indigenous tribal life. The fight over Line 5 communicates the skewed lens through which the higher powers in the matter view indigenous communities, valuing a hazardous crude oil pipeline over the rights and safety of local Indigenous tribes. 

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