An unoccupied subcontractor truck struck Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline near Saxon, Wisconsin, on August 25, releasing an estimated 1.3 million gallons of natural gas liquids.
The Canadian oil monopoly continues to operate the pipeline despite a court ruling that it has been trespassing on Bad River Band land.
The liquids, consisting mainly of propane and butane, vaporized into the atmosphere during construction of a 41-mile reroute around the Bad River Reservation. About 150 people responded to the leak, one nearby home was evacuated, and power was shut off to 55 residents. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) asked Enbridge to halt work until the leak was resolved and measures were in place to prevent future spills. Enbridge temporarily halted work.
Line 5 carries up to 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily. Former Bad River Tribal Chair Mike Wiggins said a crude oil release would be “apocalyptic.”
The accident adds to violations during Enbridge’s current reroute project. At least four drilling-fluid releases have occurred, including spills in late June ranging from roughly 5 gallons to 1,900 gallons. The Wisconsin DNR issued four notices of non-compliance.
Enbridge has a long history of major spills. In 1991, its Line 3 pipeline ruptured in Minnesota, releasing about 1.7 million gallons of oil in the largest inland oil spill in US history. In 2010, an Enbridge pipeline released more than 1 million gallons of crude oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River system. Line 5 itself spilled at least 1.1 million gallons of oil from 1968-2017.
The Bad River Band has fought Enbridge’s operation of Line 5 across its land for years. Agreements allowing the pipeline to cross 12 parcels of reservation land expired in June 2013, but Enbridge continued operating the pipeline without the Band’s permission. The Tribal Council rejected new agreements in 2017 and 2019.
The Band sued Enbridge in 2019. In 2023, a federal district court ruled that Enbridge was trespassing and ordered the company to pay $5.15 million for its continued use of the land and remove the pipeline from the 12 parcels by June 2026. The court also ordered Enbridge to continue paying for its use of the land while the pipeline remained in operation.
On July 30, 2026, the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the finding that Enbridge is trespassing but sent the case back to the lower court to reconsider the remedies. The appeals court said Enbridge must remove the pipeline but should receive a “reasonable opportunity” to complete the reroute already underway.
The court said that immediately halting Line 5 before an alternative route is available could risk violating the 1977 US-Canada Transit Treaty, which limits both countries’ ability to impede the flow of oil and natural gas between them. The court also stated that its decision to give Enbridge more time “does not reflect our approval of the company’s behavior.”
Despite a court ruling that Enbridge is trespassing on indigenous land, repeated violations documented by regulators, and a leak of more than 1 million gallons of combustible material, Line 5 continues to operate through government collusion with toothless enforcement to maximize oil profits.
Image: Screenshot of drone footage of the pipe burst along Line 5. Credit: Screenshot taken by Joe Bates, retrieved from Wisconsin Public Radio.
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