Menu
Hello relatives,
My name is Aurora Conley and I am an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa nation. I am asking for your support to protect the rights of my nation and to protect our local ecosystems from the impacts of a dirty tar sands project, Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline. The US Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) deadline for public comments on Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline expansion is quickly approaching, March 22nd!
Click here to submit your comment today!
[Sample comment below]
Canadian oil company Enbridge plans to reroute its Line 5 tar sands pipeline across hundreds of waterways threatening ecosystems that are essential to the livelihood, cultural practices and spiritual integrity of my homelands and the territory of the Bad River tribal nation. You can read about the tribe’s resistance to this project on our website here.
Read Enbridge’s Application and the Army Corps Notice here.
To uphold the rights of the Bad River tribal nation and to avoid climate catastrophes much worse that what we suffered in 2021, we need to stop building oil pipelines and extracting fossil fuels. It makes no sense to approve any new pipelines or pipeline reroutes. President Biden and the Army Corps must see the bigger picture and do their part to be in alignment with their own goals to drastically reduce carbon emissions.
This is a moment for the Army Corps and President Biden to decide; do they stand with the people or with fossil fuels?
The Army Corps is accepting comments through March 22. Comments can be sent to:
OR
CEMVP-RD
180 Fifth Street East, Suite 700
Saint Paul, MN 55101 1678.
They have not announced a public hearing.
Are you including Horizontal Directional Drilling in your comments? If so, please cc soc@wisconsinlandwater.org. This is the submission email for comments on HDD technical standards the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is currently taking.
Here is a sample comment you could leave:
| Sample Comment to the Army Corps of Engineers Thanks for deciding to evaluate Enbridge’s proposed Line 5 expansion in WI under the individual CWA 404 permit program. Adding a virtual public hearing and a comment period for a draft EA would be even better. A project that endangers the Great Lakes deserves an extremely thorough review. Given the welcome steps that Pres. Biden took to restore the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, I hope that your review will consider, at least: (1) the direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts, (2) all connected actions, including the proposed Line 5 tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac; (3) the GHG emissions projections for the continued use of the entire Line 5, which this new segment would allow, and (4) alternative approaches – including a decommissioning alternative – that would minimize environmental and public health costs. Furthermore, the impacts on the treaty rights, fishing rights, hunting rights, and water for surrounding tribal nations must be taken into account. I urge you to review Line 5 in its entirety, since no EIS was prepared in 1953. Please ensure that tribes and local communities can meaningfully engage with the Line 5 permitting process and that climate change and environmental justice goals are fully considered. Regarding the navigable waters of the U. S., the Corps should consider potential impacts to the White River, where Enbridge plans to use horizontal directional drilling (HDD). Using it in the recent installation of the new Line 3 in MN, Enbridge caused at least 28 frac-outs, where drilling fluid, mixed with fine-grained bentonite clay, escapes onto land, into surface waters and underground spaces. These releases of drilling fluids cause a host of adverse impacts to waterways, including the smothering of aquatic organisms and the reduction of food availability and fish spawning and refuge sites. The Corps should investigate the cause of the frac-outs, and whether there are any mitigation measures that might prevent frac-outs or reduce the severity of the impacts, before blindly approving a project that could cause the same irreparable damage. Regardless, the risk is too dangerous to take. The 2018 Greenpeace report “Dangerous Pipelines” concluded that an Enbridge pipeline leaks or ruptures every 20 days on the average. Based on the numbers of frac-outs, spills, and aquifer breaches on the recently built Line 3 pipeline in MN, Enbridge has proven that it cannot be trusted to protect WI’s precious water resources. The Corps should consider climate change. Pres. Biden has a goal of cutting our C02 emissions in half by 2030, but they’re still rising! If you grant a permit for this expansion, you’ll be locking in an aging fossil fuel pipeline for decades to come, just as we need to drastically cut back on fossil fuel combustion. The WI DNR’s draft EIS claims that since this project is a reroute, it won’t affect the amount of fossil fuels burned. But if you accept that logic, Enbridge can replace an entire line, section by section, resulting in decades more of fossil fuel use. |
Thank you relatives for your support.
Chi miigwech,
Aurora Conley