Enbridge’s plan to relocate a portion of its Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin could involve a drilling method even the company admits will likely release toxic chemicals into surrounding waters.
Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a common method for building pipelines under bodies of water, and it sometimes leads to “frac-outs,” or drilling-fluid leaks.
Bobbi Rongstad, who lives in northern Wisconsin, said she has serious concerns about the plans to use HDD on Line 5. For her, the issue literally hits close to home, as the oil pipeline would cross under two streams running through her property.
“I used to work in the utility industry, and it’s a great thing for shoving a gas line under a sidewalk, not messing up somebody’s front lawn,” Rongstad explained. “But when they’re doing 30-inch pipe and going 60 feet under the bottom of the river, which is what’s proposed, things can go wrong.”
In an email to a Minnesota state senator about Enbridge’s similar, Line 3 project, the company acknowledged frac-outs are “a generally known and common risk,” but argued HDD is still the least environmentally-destructive method for laying new pipeline under bodies of water.
While Rongstad generally agrees, she contended the line should not be placed in the areas around Lake Superior, where any leaks could have far-reaching impacts.
In Minnesota, state officials report more than half of the 21 HDD crossings for Line 3 have been polluted with drilling fluid.
Rongstad said Wisconsin does not have any significant HDD regulations, although the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is accepting comments on its draft technical standards for the process.
“If the DNR were able to put some more regulation on it, I would sure feel better,” Rongstad stressed. “But they’re not going to be able to do that midstream, you know? The application is in front of them, and they’re going to get pressure from Enbridge.”
Shannon Holsey, president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, said in an annual State of the Tribes address last month, Line 5’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement fails to take into account numerous potential environmental impacts.
“Safeguarding these tributaries and coastal wetlands is critical to maintaining the deeply rooted connection to the natural world and emotional well-being in our cultural traditions,” Holsey asserted.
The rerouting was drafted after the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa sued Enbridge to remove the pipeline from their tribal lands.
While the new 40-mile route falls outside the reservation, tribal advocates stated it will still impact the tribe’s watershed area. The DNR is accepting comments on Line 5’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement until March 18, and comments on HDD technical standards until March 28.
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A unique radio station in the Columbia River Gorge provides information in English and Spanish, on topics ranging from the environment to immigration.
Radio Tierra is a small community station in Hood River serving farmworkers who mainly come from Mexico and are living on both the Oregon and Washington sides of the river.
“Its purpose is to reach out to this community and talk about environmental and social issues that happen in our communities, and for them to understand how climate change or environmental crisis affects our communities,” said Ubaldo Hernandez, host of a show on the station called “Conoce Tu Columbia.”
Hernandez discusses a range of issues on his show, such as the health effects of pesticides and water quality in the Columbia, and talks about how people can get involved in solutions to these issues. He also is a senior organizer for the group Columbia Riverkeeper.
Leti Moretti, a volunteer at Radio Tierra who used to host her own show, said the station provides a way for people to get involved in their community. Moretti said she would use her show to talk about topics such as COVID-19 and immigration and to dispel misinformation.
“We know that information in Spanish comes much later than it does for the English language, and then the same goes for when there’s misinformation,” she said. “In order to correct it, it takes, like, four times longer to correct in Spanish than you would in English, because there’s not as many checkpoints.”
Moretti said Radio Tierra has a special relationship with the region it serves. People called into her show simply to say they’d lost their wallet at the grocery store and needed help finding it. She said someone once called in to say a family’s refrigerator had broken down.
“It took less than 60 minutes before someone called me and said, ‘We’ve got a refrigerator in the back of our truck. Just tell us where we need to deliver it.’ They had an extra one in one of the orchards that they delivered to this family,” she said. “So, that kind of magic was really cool to see.”
Moretti said it’s not all serious conversations on Radio Tierra. When a request comes in to lighten things up, the deejays are happy to oblige with some cheerful songs.
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As Black History Month continues, the effects of environmental injustice are being woven into conversations about the ways Black communities are left behind, including in Minnesota.
Even prior to the current racial reckoning, Minnesota drew attention for stark disparities in education and wages.
Minister JaNaé Bates, communications director for the group, ISAIAH, said climate issues are no different, noting Minnesota has abundant resources to make sure everyone can live in a safe and healthy community, but policy and planning decisions over time have left out some Black populations.
“We deserve to have, you know, clean air, clean water, healthy land,” Bates outlined. “What we’ve found is that is often not the case.”
She pointed to St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood and North Minneapolis as areas suffering as a result of interstate construction and heavy industrial settings. The Biden administration has prioritized environmental justice in the new infrastructure law.
Bates acknowledged some movement to reverse the problems, but pointed out Black communities often are not made aware of policy developments. For example, Bates pointed out initiatives to provide subsidies for solar panels are not heavily advertised in Black communities.
She argued the gap goes beyond whether the programs are affordable.
“Not just the financial means,” Bates explained. “But that they have the knowledge of what’s going on when you consider that lower-income families often are also working multiple jobs, and don’t usually have the time or space to absorb all the things happening in civic life around them.”
She added Black-led groups are doing their part by creating greater awareness of climate issues in their communities.
Bates emphasized environmental racism can be tied to other historical inequities in Black neighborhoods, and while it may take a long time to fully overcome barriers, she contended recent history of political willpower provides hope.
“When COVID-19 became very prominent and very real in our lives, there was a bunch of legislation that passed that people had been working on for years,” Bates remarked. “It was able to pass in almost the blink of an eye, because we recognized the urgent need.”
And with more urgency behind environmental matters, she hopes it translates to expanding the types of infrastructure to make marginalized communities more climate resilient.
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Commerce City residents living in the shadow of the Suncor refinery are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to deny an emissions permit recently renewed by Colorado regulators.
Lucy Molina lives near the facility and is a Suncor neighborhood organizer with the group 350 Colorado. She said the EPA has an opportunity to finally hold industrial polluters accountable, and answer the calls from communities to protect their health.
“They make billions and I get cancer,” said Molina. “We are the most polluted ZIP code in the nation. That is not something to be proud of. And it’s time for the community to wake up, and fight back and protect the future of our children and the future of our planet.”
Suncor has a long rap sheet with regulators. The EPA reported that the refinery has been in “significant violation” of the Clean Air and Water acts and federal toxic disposal laws for every quarter of the last three years.
Community members want the facility closed until Suncor can assure compliance and reduce emissions.
A Suncor representative said by email that the company is continuing to make improvements to reduce its environmental impact, and cares deeply about the communities surrounding the Commerce City refinery.
Environmental groups also are urging the EPA to reverse what they see as a decades-long injustice against the mostly Latino surrounding community. Molina is a single mother who said she would love to move her family far away from what she calls her “deadly neighbor.”
“It’s not as easy to just get up and go,” said Molina. “I mean, I can’t afford it either, you know what I mean? Just transitions need to begin in communities like ours that have carried the heavy and stinky burden of all these polluters for decades, really.”
Communities of color in Colorado and across the U.S. disproportionately live near industrial polluters, largely because the tracts were the only places they could find housing due to redlining and other policies.
The EPA’s Region 8 office has 45 days to review the permit’s renewal after Colorado officials delivered the proposal on February 8.
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