ODANAH, Wis. – An oil spill was reported along the Enbridge Line 5 near Bad River Indian Reservation south of Ashland. Calgary-based Enbridge denied any knowledge of where the oil originated. The contamination may have been from from a past discharge, the company said. The spill was reported to the state Natural Resources Department by a contractor. The agency launched an investigation. Initial checks didn’t find additional petroleum odors or soil staining. The spill was one mile west of tribal lands and drains into the White and Bad rivers. The reservation has 500 miles of rivers and streams, 30,000 acres of wetlands, and 38 miles of Lake Superior shore. This includes the Kakagon Sloughs, which are called Wisconsin’s Everglades and are prime for tribal wild rice harvests.
Contentoous route. The Bad River tribe has pressed Enbridge to relocate Line 5 to bypass a12-mile section through the tribe’s reservation. Enbridge fought back for seven years but eventually agreed after a court order in 2019 to re-route the line 41 miles around tribal lands.
Pipeline 5 profile
This 30-inch 645-mile oil pipeline, laid underground in 1953, conveys petroleum from Alberta to eastern Canada through the Great Lakes states. The line carries 540,000 barrels per day. In its first 64 years, Line 5 was known to have spilled 1.1 million gallons. Line 5 has been a long-term target of environmentalists, especially for a lake-bottom section under the environmentally sensitive Mackinac straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.