Tags
AG Ellison, Army Corps, Betty McCollum, Damages, DNR, Enbridge, EPA, Keith Ellison, Kessler, Line 3, Minnesota, MNDNR, MPCA, Pipeline, Pipeline Construction, Post-Pipeline-Construction Damage, Sieben, Strommen, USACE, USEPA, Water, Water Quality
The only times the powerful bring change are when it suits their aims…
or when enough of us speak up to force them to bring needed change.

These last few weeks, Waadookawaad Amikwag has been working hard to speak up and be heard. Here’s a summary of the last couple months of our work:
- Two months ago, we reported on the second Enbridge Breachiversary – the one year point of unrelenting flow from Enbridge’s deep water breach in LaSalle Valley. In case you missed it, here was reporting on the first Enbridge breach of an artesian aquifer at Clearbrook, endangering local nearby calcareous fens. And, still leaking, never reported remedied, is the MP1102.5 aquifer breach 400′ west of the Nagaajiwanaang (Fond du Lac Reservation) boundary. The latest Fond du Lac Band report on the concern noted flow reduced to six gallons a minute. Enbridge calls that flow a “seep” though it equates to over a quarter million gallons of water each month.
- On September 28th, we issued a call for help to the Minnesota Congressional Representatives and Senators, asking they request the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) initiate a federal investigation of these concerns. Waadookawaad Amikwag finds evidence that the Clean Water Act, turning 50 years old this month, is being wantonly violated here in Minnesota as officials and agencies downplay and hide the impacts we’re witnessing.
- September 28th to October 2nd, R.I.S.E. Coalition held a 2nd Annual Firelight Treaty Encampment to help educate the community on Treaty Rights and Responsibilities, support the field workers monitoring the nearby post-construction Enbridge Line 3/93 damages, and holding space in ceremony for nibi miinawaa manoomin (water and wild rice).
- On October 1st, the anniversary of oil flow through Line 3/93, Honor the Earth issued a call to action as well, asking for a federal-level independent investigation of the post-construction situation here in Northern Minnesota’s Indian Country. Healing Minnesota Stories Scott Russell also shared this call and more details about Waadookawaad Amikwag’s field work.
- October 6th, Waadookawaad Amikwag issued a draft Memorandum of Agreement on behalf of our flyover data partners (R.I.S.E. Coalition, Sierra Club, Honor the Earth, MN350, and White Earth Reservation) to AG Ellison along with DNR Commissioner Strommen, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Kessler, and Public Utilities Chair Sieben. We asked for a response by October 21st on what agreements we might make around working together, using all the data that Water Protectors have gathered, to determine 1) how we can stop additional harms by Enbridge to the land and water and 2) find the least damaging methods, if they exist, to remediate the harms Enbridge has caused.
While we see new horrors each week in the post-Enbridge-construction landscape, the state continues to withhold this information from the public. It seems, only when we reveal the damages publicly ourselves, that the state will confirm to Minnesotans our findings about Enbridge’s post-construction water impacts.


As was witnessed in early August for the LaSalle breach, our evidence forced the hand of the DNR to come clean and admit publicly that, on July 11th, Enbridge had reported ongoing “seeps” in the LaSalle Valley. The November 2021 thermal flyover revealed the unrelenting flow from the land just after Enbridge reported the LaSalle breach “fixed”. One measurement on one of the seeps at LaSalle shows flow of over 800,000 gallons per month. We’ve counted at least 6 “seeps”; Enbridge has marked at least 4.
We’ve issued press releases, yet the mainstream press rarely publishes on our work. We continue to be “our own news” as we like to say… the News for the People.
It seems, only when we reveal the damages publicly ourselves,
that the state will confirm to Minnesotans our findings about Enbridge’s post-construction water impacts.
What will become of Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes, if these deep water bodies are bled dry?
Please do what you can? Share our work, make calls to agencies and officials, watch the videos to comprehend the impacts on our ecosystems and our people.
Miigwech bizindaawiiyeg. Thank you for listening.