Enbridge has three years to shut down the parts of its Line 5 oil pipeline that cuts across the land of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and pay that tribe more than $5 million for trespassing, a federal judge ordered Friday. U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled the rupture of the nearly-exposed pipeline — as little as 15 feet from waterways, in places — “would unquestionably be a public nuisance” and also ordered the Canadian pipeline company to pay the tribe a portion of its profits as long as it continues operating on their land. Enbridge’s 645-mile, 70-year-old Line 5 pipeline pumps as much as 23 million gallons of oil and liquid natural gas each day, including a passage under the Straits of Mackinac, where a rupture could devastate much of the Great Lakes ecosystem. (AP, The Hill, CBC, Michigan Public Radio, Bloomberg $, Michigan Advance, Reuters)
