Band Meets with Corps Over Line 3

By Brett Larson, Inaajimowin Editor

On August 10, Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin,Secretary-Treasurer Sheldon Boyd, and other members of the tribal government met face-to-face in an official consultation with Jaime Pinkham, Assistant Secretary of the Army Corps of Engineers, to register their disappointment with the Line 3 pipeline consultation and approval process and to seek redress from the Corps.

The meeting was also attended by Jamie Edwards and She- na Matrious of the Office of Government Affairs, Kelly Apple- gate and Perry Bunting of the Department of Natural Resources, and Commissioner of Administration Peter Nayquonabe.

Kelly said the Band’s ”big ask” was for ”a supplemental federal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) done by the Army Corps to better inform regulators and the public about environmental impacts. And if they can’t do it, advocate for us to the Environmental Protection Agency to do the supplemental federal EIS.”

In a letter dated the same day, Melanie expressed the Band’s concerns about the pipeline and the consultation process: ”It is the position of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe that the Enbridge Line 3 replacement project was flawed from the beginning because the State’s approval process is itself flawed and there was little if any federal oversight.”

State regulations regarding pipeline approvals were written seven decades ago with power lines, not pipelines, in mind, the letter states. The Band was not meaningfully consulted on the project, and the ”regulatory impairment” led to an under-estimate of impacts to wetlands, manoomin, and Anishinaabe people. There was a bias toward a new pipeline corridor and a failure to identify tribal cultural and historical areas.

One specific complaint concerned the estimated amount of dewatering that would be required — which rose from 400 million gallons to nearly 5 billion gallons. ”With a significantly higher estimate, Enbridge asked the State of Minnesota for an amended Water Appropriation Permit,” the letter states. ”Due to this unusual situation, Minnesota offered a briefing to the affected Tribes, but without consultation or public comment, then the State issued the amended permit.”

The letter continues with a request for a Supplemental EIS to assess downstream impact of pipeline crossings and to conduct an extensive hydrological study of the whole pipeline route. ”This pipeline poses a direct risk to the Mille Lacs Band lakes, rivers and land, and wild rice, which is a federally protected trust resource. Consequently, it is the position of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe that the Army Corps of Engineers has a trust responsibility to advocate for the Band with regard to Enbridge’s Line 3 developments and impacts.”

”With a Supplemental Federal EIS better informing the regulators and the public of the wetland impacts, groundwater impacts supporting these wetlands, and their potential effect on our manoomin, we can then make the proper determination if the project should proceed or not. And, if it is determined that the project may proceed, we then are able to appropriately mitigate for any potential irreversible damages to the natural resources and the environment, and safeguard our sacred manoomin for the current and all future generations.”

Pinkham met with officials from Red Lake and White Earth the following day.

The consultations took place in accordance with President Biden’s Executive Memorandum to federal agencies to consult with tribes on any federal actions that might impact them.

As the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Pinkham, a citizen of the Nez Perce Tribe, establishes policy direction and supervises the Department of the Army functions relating to all aspects of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works program. These responsibilities include programs for conservation and development of the nation’s water and wetland resources, flood control, navigation, and aquatic ecosystem restoration.