never happen again. >> The latest hearing
challenging the Enbridge Line five oil and gas
pipeline in northern Wisconsin unfolded late
this week. The bad River Band of Lake Superior,
Chippewa and environmental groups want state permits
already approved to be reversed and to halt any
pipeline construction. The circuit court judge in the
case isn't expected to rule until the end of this month
at the earliest, even though line five
construction is being rerouted around the
reservation, the band worries about damage to
Upstream and Lake Superior water. For more on this, we
turn to Band River Band Chairwoman Elizabeth
Arbuckle. And thanks very much for being here.
>> Thanks for having me. >> So fundamentally, I've
had people ask why the concerns, if the pipeline
has been rerouted to skirt reservation lands?
>> There's lots of reasons to be worried or concerned,
and one of them is when they do the construction,
they are going to be stirring up mercury
deposits of from acid rain from decades past, and
those have settled. So when they come through to do
that, that's going to stir up these deposits, which
are then going to go directly into our waterways.
You know, they are just hugging our reservation.
It's not like they went miles and miles away. It's
literally a stone's throw from from our land
reservation boundaries. And that is going to stir up
these mercury deposits that have been in our wetlands
and go into our water and go into Lake Superior. You
know, we've already got we already have mercury
deposit warnings and can only eat one walleye a week
or a month, depending on on your age and gender. And,
and that's, that's problematic. So if we get
more mercury, that's going to affect our fishing
industry. It's certainly affecting our Ojibwe
culture because like walleye, for example, is a
major part of our culture. So that's what we worry
about the mercury upsets. We also worry about the
blasting they're going to do in the reroute, which is
in the mountains, just off the reservation. That's
another thing that we don't know what we don't know.
They say, oh, it's safe, it's fine. The other one is
our treaty rights. And this is key because the way they
want to do the reroute is so we'll say this is the
reservation. And they're going to go like that with
this being Lake Superior. So on all three sides
they're going to surround us and encircle us. And
that's problematic because they're still in our ceded
territory, right? That's still we still have rights
to hunt, fish and gather in this land. And we're not
going to be able to cross into our reservation
without asking their permission. You know,
that's that's not what we signed up for. That's not
the spirit of the law. That's not been the
interpretations in the and the understanding of our
treaty rights. So cutting that off, cutting us off
from from our land, from our own homeland, from
accessing the, the, our treaty rights that we're
allowed to use, which have been upheld. That's
problematic. >> What is your response to
the DNR and Enbridge saying that environmental issues
have been exhaustively researched and addressed?
>> I say I don't think so, right? I mean, everyone
like I said, everyone's been ignoring this Mercury
problem. And the problem with the heavy metals that
are going to be released by the land. So I don't think
they have been exhaustively researched. And yet there
seems to be no concern about this sleeping mercury
that we have in the wetlands area on and near
our reservation. >> Why the protracted fight?
>> I don't think anybody wants a protracted fight,
but it's the outcome that's important, not not the
battle. So we have to protect our homeland. We
have to protect Lake Superior. We have to
protect our treaty rights. And those that you know
that that our fellow other Ojibwe bands in northern
Wisconsin exercise and hold with us as well.
>> Do you feel as though you will prevail?
>> Yes. I have to believe we will prevail in the end.
We have to. The stakes are too high, right? I can't, I
can't imagine not. We need to. We need to preserve
Wisconsin, Northern Wisconsin, Lake Superior.
And we're on the front lines for that. And so
we're willing to do that. It's like I said, it's it's
it's even bigger than our reservation, right? It's
even bigger than that because those waterways
lead right to Lake Superior. So it's really important we
all think and study and, and look and see what
they're saying and work toward, you know, stopping
it. >> All right. Chairwoman
Elizabeth Arbuckle, we leave it there. Thank you