A sign protesting Enbridge Line 5 in Michigan. (Laina G. Stebbins | Michigan Advance)

“The land does not belong to us, it is borrowed by us from our children’s children” said Robert Blanchard, chairman of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. “We harvest our wild rice from the waters, we hunt from the land, fish from the lake, streams, and rivers to feed our families and gather the medicines to heal our relatives.” 

The Bad River Band cites this relationship with the land in its fight against the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, which has operated in trespass on the Bad River Band’s reservation for years. Now, the Band and its allies are challenging the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) decision to grant permits that the Canadian oil company Enbridge will need to construct a re-route of the pipeline. The new route no longer trespasses on the reservation, it will still run through the Bad River watershed. The tribe and a coalition of state environmental groups say a spill in that area could be devastating.

Last Thursday, Midwest Environmental Advocates, 350 Wisconsin, the Sierra Club of Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filed a petition for a contested case hearing with the DNR, challenging DNR permitting for Line 5. Shortly after filing the challenge, Midwest Environmental Advocates received a report of a 69,000-gallon oil spill in Jefferson County.

According to an accident report shared with Wisconsin Examiner, the spill originated from Enbridge’s Line 6 pipeline. Some 1,650 barrels of crude oil are estimated to have leaked from the pipeline, with 42 gallons to a barrel. When plugged into Google Maps, GPS data in the accident report point to a roadway running through a grassy, wooded area. The map shows that the spill occurred near a waterway that flows into Lake Ripley, not far from a group of nature preserves and campgrounds. Although the pipeline segment had a leak detection system, the accident report states that this didn’t alert anyone to the leak, which was first noticed on Nov. 11 by an Enbridge technician.

Line 6 is one of four pipeliness that run from Superior, Wisconsin, to Illinois. It carries crude oil from Superior to Lockport, Illinois.

Tony Wilkin Gibart, executive director of Midwest Environmental Advocates, said in a statement that the Line 6 spill highlights the dangers of Line 5. “Consider that in the very same week that DNR issued permits for Line 5 based on its conclusion that the risk for a spill would be ‘low,’ DNR was investigating a significant oil leak on another Enbridge pipeline in Wisconsin,” said Gibart. “DNR’s reasoning for approving Line 5 defies common sense.”

In November, the DNR decided to issue wetland and waterway permits to Enbridge as a step towards moving the pipeline off the Bad River reservation. The DNR highlighted that the wetland permits would include over 200 conditions which Enbridge would need to honor, and which would keep the company in compliance with Wisconsin’s wetland and waterway standards. Both the DNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would need to approve the permits before construction of the reroute could begin. 

“Many of our people will feel the effects if we lose these resources,” said Blanchard. “In my view, the DNR failed our children when it gave Enbridge the permits to build this reroute. They failed to consider the company’s multiple disasters in Minnesota and in Michigan, which are still being cleaned up. They failed to consider our tribe, our water quality, and the natural resources of the entire Bad River watershed. As a tribal chairman and an elder, it’s my responsibility to protect the generations still to come. That’s why we are fighting this reroute in court.”

The Band is represented by EarthJustice in a lawsuit filed against the DNR which, like the petition filed last week by the environmental groups, accuses the state agency of producing an inadequate final Environmental Impact Statement on the reroute which violates the Wisconsin Environmental Protection Act. 

Blanchard highlighted his tribe’s reliance on wild rice fields growing along the Bad River and Lake Superior, as well as natural medicines, wild game, and the land itself which are crucial to the Bad River Band’s cultural practices and way of life. Every year the tribe holds an annual wild rice harvest, and Bad River Band members hunt and gather from the land all year. 

“If something was to happen during that time, or when that pipeline is in place, you know, it’s really going to affect a lot of things that we do here, and the way that we do things here on the reservation as far as our way of life,” Blanchard warned. 

Currently the Line 5 pipeline crosses the Bad River inside the boundaries of the reservation. If the reroute goes through,  Enbridge would construct 41 miles of new pipeline to cross the river outside of reservation land. The reroute would still place the natural resources the tribe relies on in danger if an oil spill or leak were to occur. 

Stefanie Tsosie, senior staff attorney at Earthjustice, also warned that constructing new pipeline damages natural formations and resources which are often irreplaceable. “Once construction starts they can’t undo the damage,” Tsosie said in a statement. “Enbridge has a terrible track record for pipeline construction and operation. And this place — this watershed and this territory — is not another place they can just plow through.” 

Opponents to the pipeline point to a history of ecological disasters due to spillage from Enbridge pipelines. In 2010, millions of gallons of crude oil contaminated the Kalamazoo River, creating a crisis which took years to address. Over the past 50 years, Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline has spilled over 1 million gallons in dozens of different incidents. 

Today, an area known as the “meander” is also creating concern for the Bad River Band. “The river is changing course, and it does that throughout the way it runs,” said Blanchard. At the meander where the pipeline crosses,  he added, “If we have high water events, flooding, harsh winter with a lot of ice build up, and all that breaks loose in the spring, then we get this high water that very well could take that pipeline out, and cause a spill.”

The tribe is monitoring the situation regularly, but this does little to ease their anxieties. The meander is “quite difficult to get to,” said Blanchard, and it’s also just one area of concern along the pipeline’s route. “A few years back, we had an exposed pipeline coming down one of the sidehills up there,” said Blanchard. “There was quite a ways where the pipeline was exposed and just kind of hanging in mid-air, which could have been disastrous if it wasn’t found and something done about it.”

If Line 5 were rerouted, it would still go through other wetlands and habitats outside the reservation. “These are some of the most treasured areas in Wisconsin,” said Brett Korte, an attorney with Clean Wisconsin. “When we think of the beauty of our state, our precious freshwater resources, the places we must protect, these areas are at the top of the list.” 

In a statement, Korte added, “This push from Canadian oil giant Enbridge is getting national attention because what it’s proposing to do here in Wisconsin is dangerous.”

This report was updated with additional information about Line 6.

The 30-foot balsam fir serving as Wisconsin's 2024 capitol tree was donated by a Rhinelander family.(Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Government employees, children in snow pants warding off the frigid early-December temperatures and Smokey the Bear gathered in the pine-smelling rotunda of the Wisconsin Capitol Thursday afternoon to light this year’s state holiday tree. 

This year, the tree commemorates the 125th anniversary of Wisconsin’s state parks, which began with the opening of Interstate State Park on the St. Croix River in northwest Wisconsin in 1900. Hundreds of ornaments handmade by kids from across the state celebrate outdoor recreation in Wisconsin. 

“Wisconsin is a treasure of natural beauty and wonder,” Gov. Tony Evers said before the lighting of the 30-foot balsam fir, donated by a Rhinelander family. 

Smokey the Bear and a seventh grader who spoke about what Wisconsin’s state parks mean to her flipped the switch to light the tree’s 10,000 multi-colored lights. 

Evers says new DNR secretary has been chosen, wants to keep focus on budget

At a news conference shortly after the tree lighting, Evers said that he has selected someone to take over as secretary of the Department of Natural Resources — a position that has been vacant for more than a year after former Secretary Adam Payne resigned last October. 

Evers wouldn’t say who the nominee is, but said it would be a woman. 

The governor also said he wouldn’t weigh in on the primary election in next spring’s campaign for a new Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction and that April’s state Supreme Court race is “a huge, huge election,” but that the Court doesn’t make the law so he wanted to focus on the branch that does so. 

He told reporters that he hasn’t spoken with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos since November’s election. The relationship between Evers and Republicans in the Legislature has often been frosty, and he said he didn’t think that would change. But Evers said that in the upcoming legislative session, in which the two chambers are more closely divided than in recent years, it would be necessary for the two parties to work together to find solutions.

“I don’t think it’ll be much different,” Evers said. “They’re going to be huffing and puffing and I’m going to be huffing and puffing so on and so forth. But I believe that the makeup of the Legislature is going to make it imperative on all of us to come to some reasonable conclusions. We’ll see what happens.” 

“We’ll propose something, they’re going to save it or throw it out,” he continued. “We get five minutes together and get something accomplished. But at the end of the day, my priorities are in the budget.”

Wisconsin dairy CAFO (Photo courtesy of Wisconsin DNR)

Two environmental advocacy groups want a review of the wastewater permit issued by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to a Kewaunee County large concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO).

The Midwest Environmental Advocates and Environmental Law and Policy Center filed a petition asking for the review, saying it was needed to address the “DNR’s failure to include necessary conditions to fulfill its duty to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the state” when it granted the permit. 

In 2021, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the DNR had the authority to impose stricter regulations on CAFOs, including requiring operators to monitor for groundwater pollution and limiting the number of animals that can be housed to protect water quality. The agency has since faced some push back when it comes to its ability to regulate.

“This case is about making sure CAFOs are held accountable to Wisconsin’s environmental laws by a DNR that isn’t afraid to exercise its authority,” Midwest Environmental Advocates Staff Attorney Adam Voskuil said in a statement. 

The permit in question was granted to Pagels Ponderosa, one of the largest dairy farms in Wisconsin with over 11,000 cows, in August.

The two environmental advocacy groups are representing the Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin, Friends of the Forestville Dam and a Kewaunee County resident whose private drinking water well has been contaminated by nitrates. According to the petition, the groups are concerned about the impact of Pagels Ponderosa’s manure management practices on the health of their families, drinking water and the lakes, rivers and streams in the area.

Pagels Ponderosa’s cows, according to the petition, are housed in separate facilities located within five miles of one another located close to Kewaunee River. The facilities generate over 100,000,000 gallons of manure annually, and the fields where the CAFO spreads the manure are in a part of the state that is susceptible to groundwater contamination, the petition states. 

“Before the final permit was issued, many community members who participated in the DNR’s public hearing process expressed concerns about the impact of Pagels’ manure spreading practices on our groundwater and surface water,” Christine Reid, of Friends of the Forestville Dam, said in a statement. “But the DNR ignored our concerns and approved the permit without any meaningful changes to protect our water resources.”

Courtesy of the Department of Natural Resources page on parks and recreation.

Gov. Tony Evers on Friday appointed Waupaca County dairy farmer Rachel Bouressa to the Wisconsin Natural Resource Board — the policy making body for the state Department of Natural Resources. 

Evers appointees, who now control the body, have become a political flashpoint in recent years after an appointee of Republican Gov. Scott Walker refused to leave his seat for more than a year after the expiration of his term. Republicans in the state Senate have also denied the confirmation of several of Evers’ nominees for the board over disagreements about water quality and wolf population management policies.

“Our farmers and our state’s agricultural industry are vital to Wisconsin’s culture, heritage, and economy — and the Natural Resources Board is a critical partner in our work to conserve farmland, bolster sustainable farming practices, and ensure the growth and success of our state’s economy,” Evers said in a statement. “I’m excited that Rachel Bouressa will bring her wealth of experience and expertise in agriculture and environmental science to the Board.”

Bouressa is the fifth generation of her family to run its 90-cow dairy farm outside of New London. She is a director at-large on the Wisconsin Farm Bureau board, is a member of the local chapter of the Wisconsin Farmers Union and works as a project coordinator at GrassWorks, a non-profit focused on sustainable grass grazing practices for dairy farmers. 

“As a fifth-generation farmer and an advocate for farming and preserving our natural resources, I’ve always had a passion for the connection between agriculture and conservation,” Bouressa said. “I am honored to represent our farmers on the Natural Resources Board and am excited to learn and get to work.”