a project of

The Line 3 pipeline replacement carves through vast stretches of wetlands and tribal lands.^[10] It crosses 200 rivers and streams in northern Minnesota that are part of the Mississippi river headwaters.^[11] One single spill would threaten the drinking water of 18 million people.^[12] The Line 3 replacement traverses treaty land and snakes its way between the White Earth, Leech Lake and Red Lake reservations.^[13][14] The Anishinaabe people fish and hunt in those lands and farm traditional wild rice. They have done so for thousands of years. A single pipeline spill would poison the water, kill the wildlife, and force the Indigenous people to leave their homes.^[15]

A spill is almost certain. In the US, there were 3,398 pipeline spills between 2010 and 2020.^[16] From 2002 to August 2018, Enbridge and its subsidiaries caused more than 300 spills from their pipelines.¹⁴⁴⁶⁷ Enbridge was itself responsible for the largest inland oil spill in US history. In 1991, the Line 3 pipeline spilt more than 6.4 million liters (1.7 million gallons) of tar sands oil on a frozen river near the Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota. The owner of the pipeline was Lakehead Pipe Line Company, a subsidiary of the company which later became Enbridge.¹⁴⁴⁶⁹ Had the river not been frozen, the tar sands oil would have poisoned the drinking water of 18 million people.^[18] Already during construction work for the Line 3 expansion, Enbridge caused groundwater leakages and contaminated the environment surrounding the construction site. When the company drilled into the soil to lay the pipes, it ruptured 3 groundwater reservoirs.¹⁴⁴⁷⁵ As a result, close to 300 million gallons (1.1 billion liters) of water gushed out of the ground.¹⁴⁴⁷⁷ Enbridge did not notify the state of the breaches for more than 6 months.¹⁵⁴³⁹ Regulatory authorities ordered the company to pay USD 11 million in penalties for the breaches.^1448115441 Enbridge also spilled drilling fluids at least 28 times during the construction of Line 3.¹⁴⁴⁷⁹ This should be a warning. It is only a matter of time until Enbridge’s now operational expanded Line 3 will spill.

Indigenous people are leading the fight against Line 3. In May 2021, more than 300 national and local groups signed a joint letter to President Biden asking him to immediately halt its construction.^[20] In June 2021, protestors engaged in days of action against the pipeline. Thousands of people took part.^[21] Police arrested hundreds and shot at protesters with rubber bullets.^[22] Disturbingly, Enbridge reportedly paid the police over USD 8.6 million to guard its construction site against demonstrators.^1448514487 In a deal with the state, Enbridge reimbursed the meals, overtime hours, and gear for police officers that protected the pipeline construction site from protestors.¹⁴⁴⁸⁵ Investigations revealed that these reimbursements included handcuffs used on protestors, a Pipeline Punch-named energy drink and trainings on using teargas.¹⁵⁴⁴³ These payments practically turned the police into a private security firm for the fossil fuel company rather than it acting like an an independent state body.¹⁴⁴⁸⁹ Enbridge has also been accused of tracking and spying on community meetings and protestors it considers a threat to the project.¹⁴⁴⁹¹ Enbridge’s aggressive tactics are a desperate response to nearly a decade of people marching, petitioning, speaking up in local government meetings and engaging politicians to keep the replacement of Line 3 at bay. After Enbridge announced the completion of initial expansion expansion works and the first oil fill in October 2021, Indigenous and environmental activists vowed to keep up the protest.^[24]

Frontline communities and water protectors continue to fight Line 3. In August 2021, the White Earth Band filed a complaint against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources that granted water use permits for Line 3. With the case, the White Earth Band aimed to guard the rights of wild rice. Protected under tribal law of the White Earth Band, wild rice enjoys the right to exist and flourish in a natural and clean environment. In the case, tribal members said that the water use permits for Line 3 threaten these rights.¹⁴⁴⁹³ The court dismissed this unique lawsuit because it extended beyond its jurisdiction.¹⁴⁴⁹⁵ In a separate lawsuit, First Nations people and environmental groups also challenged the expansion permits. They argued that the environmental assessments for the Line 3 permits did not consider the pipeline’s climate impacts.¹⁴⁴⁹⁷ Although the judge refused to overturn the permit, the frontline communities will continue their fight. Line 3 is not safe from legal action.¹⁴⁴⁹⁹

^{Line 5: same problems, different story}

Since 2020, Enbridge has been working on another climate-killing project. The company wants to breathe new life into its Line 5 pipeline.¹⁵⁴⁴⁵ Although Line 5 was originally built with a 50-year lifespan in mind, it has already been pumping oil for 70 years. It has spilled dozens of times since its inception, and the danger of another spill looms large.^1544715449 In Wisconsin, the riverbanks of the Bad River are washing away the land less than 5 meters from the pipeline and threaten its collapse.^1545115453 This is happening exactly where parts of Line 5 have been trespassing on land belonging to the Bad River Band since 2013, after a land use agreement between Enbridge and the Band expired.¹⁵⁴⁵⁵ The Bad River Band, who are also members of the Ashinabee people and live in the Great Lakes region, want the pipeline off their land.^1545715459 In June 2023, a judge ordered Enbridge to shut down the section running on the Bad River Band’s land within 3 years and pay them over USD 5 million in compensation.¹⁵⁴⁶¹ Rather than dismantle the nature-killing pipeline, Enbridge instead wants to reroute and replace it.

Line 5 runs through the Straits of Mackinack, a stretch of water connecting two of the five lakes in Michigan’s Great Lakes region.^1546315465 These are among the biggest lakes in the world. The Great Lakes are home to 21% of the world's fresh surface water and supply drinking water for 48 million people.¹⁵⁴⁶⁷ If Line 5 were to collapse into the Bad River, it would be a catastrophe.If it were to burst underwater in the Straits, the extent of the catastrophe would be almost impossible to grasp. The oil could reach over 450 lakes and thousands of kilometers of shoreline.^1546915471 Scientists have accused the company of downplaying the technical risks associated with such a project.¹⁵⁴⁷³ Enbridge’s consultants claim the company’s leak detection mechanisms can cut off any potential spill from Line 5 after 13 minutes.¹⁵⁴⁷⁵ In reality, its detection mechanisms failed to detect all but one of the 29 recorded oil spills from Line 5 since its inception.¹⁵⁴⁷⁷