The Line 5 oil and natural gas pipeline across northern Wisconsin went back online Monday, three weeks after a broken valve caused 1.3 million gallons of natural gas liquids to spill into the nearby Iron County town of Saxon, the pipeline’s operator Enbridge said in a news release. 

The spill occurred Aug. 25 when a truck rolled forward and broke the valve as crews worked on the controversial reroute of Line 5’s path across the state from Canada. Enbridge immediately began working to bypass the broken valve and get the pipeline back up and running despite warnings from the state Department of Natural Resources that it was doing that construction without the proper permitting. 

The DNR issued a notice of noncompliance to Enbridge last week ordering it to halt its work. Despite that warning, Enbridge completed the work and said in its news release that “work continues at the site focused on safe access, environmental testing and remediation.” The company said it has worked closely with federal and local agencies to protect health and safety and that “we continue to work” with the DNR on the “relevant permitting and separately on environmental conditions at the incident site.” 

“Ongoing environmental monitoring at the site continues,” Enbridge stated. “Wildlife has not been impacted. Testing of surface water and from a nearby residential well continues to show no impacts. Water monitoring wells continue to show no contamination. Soil and water monitoring are in place, as are plans to test, remove and properly dispose of the soil in the trench.”

Since the spill, the company has argued it needs to get the pipeline back up and running as soon as possible because the fossil fuels it transports are too important. 

“Line 5 is critical infrastructure, securely supplying 10 refineries and propane production facilities that deliver energy to millions of people in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions,” the company news release states. 

Meanwhile, environmental activists, members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and elected officials have continued to argue that the spill is confirmation that the pipeline has always been a risk to Wisconsin’s environment and should be permanently shut down.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has told the oil and gas company Enbridge to halt construction on the Line 5 pipeline across northern Wisconsin after a massive spill of natural gas liquids in Iron County late last month. 

The spill, which occurred near the town of Saxon and at 1.3 million gallons of natural gas liquids was the largest in the company’s history, was caused when an unoccupied truck rolled over a valve while crews were doing construction work. The company is in the process of rerouting Line 5 off the Bad River tribe’s reservation — a controversial project which has triggered numerous challenges to the DNR and federal permits. 

Since the spill, environmental activists, tribal members, candidates for office and elected officials in both Wisconsin and Michigan have renewed their calls for the pipeline to be shut down. 

After the spill, Enbridge began working to bypass the damaged valve so the pipeline could again be used to transport Canadian oil and gas. On Wednesday, the DNR issued a notice of noncompliance to the company, noting that Enbridge was constructing the bypass without the proper permits from the DNR. 

In the notice, and in an accompanying letter from DNR Secretary Karen Hyun, the agency said that it had told the company on three separate occasions it could not conduct the bypass work without approval from the state, and possibly from both the county and federal governments. 

The notice states that the bypass construction involves matting placed in nearby wetlands and close to Spoon Creek, which is considered a navigable waterway regulated by state law. 

In her letter, Hyun said she was “deeply concerned and incredibly frustrated” by Enbridge’s actions, especially the potentially harmful effects caused by the “significant discharge” of pollutants known as volatile organic compounds — which can be harmful to people’s health and the local environment. 

“Enbridge has continued to add to the growing list of environmental concerns and violations, demonstrating disregard for the environment, human health, and the statutory authority of the department,” she wrote. “Regarding the Line 5 reroute construction, Enbridge has caused additional discharges to the environment since my earlier letter, which have caused continued frustration and profound unease for the department and the people of Wisconsin. Additionally, at the location of the Line 5 Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) spill on August 25, Enbridge has made the decision to start unpermitted construction of a bypass, despite the extensive efforts of the DNR to educate Enbridge on the necessary permits and approvals for this bypass construction and a commitment to review submitted materials in a timely matter. Based on this pattern of noncompliance demonstrated by Enbridge, my concern over the environmental impacts of Enbridge’s activities over the past weeks has only heightened.”

In a statement, Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner said the company is working “around the clock” to clean up the spill site and return the pipeline to service. 

“Enbridge continues working towards both priorities related to the third-party line strike near Saxon, Wis. — the safe control and remediation of the incident site and completing a temporary bypass to allow the pipeline to return to service, which will help resolve energy supply disruptions,” she said. “Around the clock work on both priorities is being done in parallel. Line 5 is critical infrastructure delivering energy to millions of people in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. We continue to work with the Wisconsin DNR on relevant permitting and separately on environmental conditions at the incident site.”

Rob Lee, an attorney for Midwest Environmental Advocates who has worked on the challenges to Enbridge’s Line 5 permits, said that the company doesn’t get to decide that restoring the pipeline is more important than following state law. 

“Enbridge knew it needed authorization before it started this work. The DNR told the company that repeatedly. Enbridge went ahead anyway. That shows extraordinary disregard for Wisconsin’s environmental laws and for the state agency charged with enforcing them,” Lee said. ““Enbridge cannot simply decide that getting Line 5 back in service is more important than following Wisconsin law. They’ve been out there moving earth, crossing waterways and disturbing wetlands without permits. They need to stop treating environmental requirements as obstacles to work around and start following the law. If they don’t, DNR should revoke the permits for the reroute.”

A section of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline leaked natural gas liquid on Tuesday morning near the town of Saxon. Both the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Enbridge have confirmed the leak with Wisconsin Examiner, drone video of which is circulating social media showing plumes of smoke or mist-like vapor pouring out and covering an area with parked trucks and construction equipment. 

The leak was caused when a truck — which Enbridge said was unoccupied — rolled over an open excavation site for a Line 5 valve project, over a natural gas transmission line. The leak occurred in rural Iron County. This section of Line 5 was not carrying crude oil. 

Both Enbridge and the DNR said in email statements that no one was injured, though Enbridge stated that nearby rural homes were evacuated as a precaution. The DNR said that the valve project was struck around 10 a.m. on Tuesday, and that Enbridge reported the accident to the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s National Response Center at 11:02 a.m. and the DNR spills hotline at 11:15 a.m.. 

The fire department and Stantec are on site monitoring the air. The line was shut down to prevent further leaks, and the DNR stated work is underway to calculate exactly how much natural gas was released. In a social media post, Iron County Sheriff Paul Samardich said that Sitan Road is closed until further notice, and that a temporary no-fly zone zone has been established in the area. There is also an associated temporary power outage, the sheriff wrote, adding  that local residents should “follow instructions from emergency personnel.”

Enbridge Line 5 has been at the center of controversy for years. Environmental advocates and tribal communities argue that the decades-old Canadian pipeline perpetuates an over-reliance on fossil fuels in a time when communities need to move towards clean and renewable energy sources. A federal judge ruled that Enbridge was trespassing on the sovereign land of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in 2013, prompting a plan to reroute the pipeline around the reservation, which has also been contested. 

The Band and its allies say that the pipeline needs to be shut down as the possibility of oil or gas leaks threaten sensitive ecosystems as well as the Bad River watershed which the tribe and other communities rely on. Supporters of Line 5 and Enbridge say that the company helps maintain American energy supplies and jobs.

Jadine Sonoda, campaign coordinator for Sierra Club of Wisconsin, said that the most recent gas leak is an example of the pipeline’s issues. “This is yet another disaster by Enbridge and their Line 5 pipeline,” Sonoda said Tuesday in an emailed statement. “Just last week, Enbridge argued in court that our concerns about the damage of the construction of the Line 5 reroute, on the wetlands, waters, and nearby communities were unwarranted. They argued that the project is complicated, but they’ve got it under control — yet days later, people are being evacuated from their homes due to poisonous natural gas in the air.” 

Sonoda asked, “How many more disasters will it take for Wisconsin leaders to put a stop to this? How many many people will be harmed before our state regulators finally hold this massive corporate polluter accountable? We want to thank the monitors who alerted people to this right away, and the first responders who are helping people to safety.”