By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio
This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Enbridge says it’s temporarily halting work on rerouting its Line 5 oil and gas pipeline following a gas leak in Iron County on Tuesday.
The move comes after the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources asked the company to halt work until a gas leak is resolved and measures are in place to prevent future spills.
Enbridge estimates around 31,000 barrels, or 1.3 million gallons, of natural gas liquids containing mainly propane and butane vaporized into the atmosphere after a subcontractor’s unoccupied truck rolled into an excavation site, striking the pipeline on Sitan Road near Saxon.
Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner said in a statement that the safety of people, property and the environment is at the forefront of its activities.
“This 48-hour period will commence on August 31, 2026, and will reinforce our existing safety practices and identify opportunities to further enhance our strong safety culture,” Kellner wrote.
The company said around 150 people are responding to the leak. Local emergency crews have left the site as a private contractor has arrived to support the response. No injuries have been reported. A nearby home was evacuated, and power was shut off to 55 residents. Electricity was restored Thursday to all but five homeowners. Line 5 remains shut down.
Enbridge began using trailer-mounted flare stacks that were brought in over the weekend to begin burning off around 2,000 barrels, or 84,000 gallons, of remaining natural gas liquids in a safe and controlled manner.
“Extensive air monitoring will continue during this work, at the flare site, the incident site, and in the surrounding area,” Kellner said. “While monitoring continues to show safe air quality where crews are working, the half mile evacuation zone around the incident remains in place, as does the ‘no-fly’ zone over the site issued by the Iron County Sheriff.”
The company has been working with refineries to reduce the effects of the shutdown and hopes to restore service to the pipeline by Sept. 5. Enbridge’s Line 5 carries up to 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily from Superior to Sarnia, Ontario.
Construction of Enbridge’s $1 billion reroute of Line 5 has been ongoing. The company is building a new 41-mile stretch around the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s reservation in Ashland and Iron counties. The 30-inch pipeline runs 645 miles from Superior through northern Wisconsin and Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario.
Enbridge said construction crews have completed about 65 percent of the Line 5 reroute around the reservation of the Bad River tribe. Crews have finished boring 25 underground tunnels to install the pipe and completed horizontal directional drilling at three sites. The company has now reached peak construction with around 700 workers on the project.
Details of the leak still remain unknown. It’s not clear what led the truck to roll into the excavation site. In a Thursday letter, DNR Secretary Karen Hyun said the agency is “deeply concerned” by the spill and “immensely frustrated” by other events where the company has failed to comply with state regulations.
The DNR has asked for multiple details on the release. On Friday, the agency said it may halt work on the company’s project to enforce compliance with state permits granted to Enbridge.
The DNR said it hasn’t been authorized to access the site due to safety concerns, and the federal Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is the lead agency on site. An investigator from PHMSA has been deployed to investigate the incident.
In 2020, Enbridge proposed the reroute after the Bad River tribe sued the company in 2019 to shut down and remove Line 5 from tribal lands where Enbridge lacked easements for the pipeline.
Three years ago, a federal judge found the company was trespassing and ordered Enbridge to pay roughly $5 million and shut down or reroute Line 5 by June of this year. The tribe and Enbridge appealed the decision, and the shutdown order was placed on hold this year.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals panel ruled that Enbridge has been trespassing and must remove the pipeline from the Bad River reservation, but it gave the company more time to complete the Line 5 reroute.
At least four releases of drilling fluid, or frac-outs, have occurred on the Line 5 project, ranging from roughly 5 gallons to up to 1,900 gallons spilled in late June. A DNR spokesperson said the agency has issued four notices of non-compliance on the project, all of which have been resolved.
