The future of Line 5Having looked at, but not studied the opinion of William M. CONLEY, district judge of U.S Court, Western District of Wiscounsin, this is a more complex case than we thought.
In 50 pages of his interim Summary Judgement, of June 16, 2023, the judge gave until June 23, 2023 to respond to his ruling, which incudes, the monitoring of Line 5, the paying of the percentage contained for trespassing by Enbridge in the Summary Judgement to the tribe, and shuttind down or relocating Line 5 within three years from the date of this judgement, as well as paying $5,177 million dollars for occupying the indian lands for 10 years past the end of the rent by Enbridge Inc.
Interestingly Judge CONLEY called the possible rupture of the pipe, (some of which is 70 years old) not a disaster(which some environmentalists claimed), but a "public nuisance".
As Line 5 goes all the way to Sarnia to rCanadian refineries , shutting down Line 5 would have very serious consequences to Canadians.
During the trial held in October 2022 Enbridge proposed some remedial work to mitigate the risk of the potential damage to the pipe on the 12 miles of native lands, but the Band opposes them.
I didn't see the response Enbridge filed with the court on june 23 of this year, but it seems the natives have the Green Advocates as supporters, and they are adamant.