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Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) has been given three years to shut down parts of the Line 5 oil pipeline that crosses reservation land in Wisconsin, a federal judge ruled Friday, also ordering the company to pay a Native American tribe more than $5M for trespassing.
Friday’s order came after members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa told him during a hearing in Madison that the pipeline is at immediate risk of being exposed by erosion and rupturing on their land.
The judge’s order said a rupture on tribal land “would unquestionably be a public nuisance” but denied the threat is imminent, giving Enbridge (ENB) three years to “cease operation of Line 5 on any parcel within the Band’s tribal territory on which defendants lack a valid right of way and to arrange reasonable remediation at those sites.”
Enbridge (ENB) said Saturday plans to appeal the ruling and “remains open to an amicable resolution with the Bad River Band.”
The company said the long-term solution to the dispute will be a 41-mile reroute of the pipeline, but “the project hinges on timely government permit approvals to allow construction to be completed within the next three years.”
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