Enbridge Inc logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken April 10, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Phototo shutter portions of an oil pipeline that runs through tribal land in Wisconsin within three years and to pay the tribe nearly $5.2 million for trespassing plus a portion of its profits until the shutdown is completed.
U.S. District Judge William Conley issued the order on Friday in Madison. The judge's action came just over a month after the Bad River Band told him an immediate shutdown was needed following heavy spring rains that eroded a riverbank protecting the pipe. The pipeline carries 540,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada through the Great Lakes region.
Enbridge said in court filings ahead of the judge's action that a hasty shutdown of the pipeline was unnecessary and would cause "extreme market turmoil." The company has proposed re-routing the pipeline around the tribal reservation, but has not received federal approvals to do so.The tribe has said a breach in the pipeline along the 12-mile segment that runs through the reservation could pollute important fishing waters, wild rice habitat and potentially underground aquifers.
The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019, arguing that riverbank erosion threatened a "looming disaster" that warranted removal of the pipeline and saying that the company no longer had a legal right to operate on the property after pipeline easements allowing it to use the land expired in 2013.