ELR Citation: 53 ELR 20092
No(s). 19-cv-602-wmc (W.D. Wis. Jun 16, 2023) (Conley, J.)

A district court ordered the Line 5 oil and gas pipeline to be removed within three years from tribal land in northern Wisconsin. The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians sought to enjoin the owner from operating the pipeline through reservation land based on the risk of its failure constituting a public nuisance, and sought damages for the owner's continued operation of the pipeline in trespass on portions of the reservation for which long-standing rights-of-way had expired. The court concluded that a rupture at the Bad River meander would unquestionably be a public nuisance, and that current conditions created a real and unreasonable risk of that occurring such that equitable relief was warranted; but that the threat of rupture was not so imminent as to warrant immediate shutdown of the pipeline. It ordered the owner to adopt a more conservative shutdown and purge plan and to pay the Band more than $5 million for operating with expired rights-of-way; and enjoined the owner to remove the pipeline within three years from any parcel within the Band's tribal territory on which it lacked a valid right-of-way and to provide reasonable remediation at those sites.