Enbridge pipeline hearing tonight on White Earth Indian reservation
Enbridge Energy officials will visit the White Earth Indian Reservation Tuesday to hear concerns about the company's proposed pipeline replacement project.
The Calgary-based energy company is looking to replace 1,031 miles of the 50-year-old oil pipeline, known as Line 3. Nearly 300 miles of that line run through northern Minnesota, from Neche, N.D., to Superior, Wis., often following Highway 2.
Enbridge plans to re-route the replacement line 55 miles farther along the proposed Sandpiper corridor from Clearbrook to Superior, but the project requires a certificate of need from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.
Tuesday's hearing in the small community of Rice Lake on the White Earth Indian Reservation is an early part of the state review. It's one of 11 PUC hearings planned this month across the proposed route, and one of the rare hearings held on tribal land.
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A series of public hearings on the proposed Sandpiper line were held across northern Minnesota earlier this summer, but the PUC's Dan Wolf said none of them took place on reservations.
Without an official outlet to voice concerns on the Sandpiper line, the Mille Lacs and White Earth Ojibwe bands held their own public hearings in June.
Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, said holding an official hearing on White Earth is a step forward for the PUC. She also expressed concerns about the Line 3 replacement project.
Adding another pipeline along the proposed Sandpiper route, she said, would increase the risk of a spill, while abandoning the existing line could leave the old corridor open to environmental damage.
"I used to tell my kids that you couldn't make a new mess until you cleaned up the old one," LaDuke said in a statement,."I think we should tell Enbridge the same."
If approved, the new Line 3 would expand from 34-inch to 36-inch pipe, doubling capacity from 390,000 to 760,000 barrels of heavy crude a day.
For more information on hearing dates and locations, visit the Public Utilities Commission's website.