Enbridge Spills Dozens of Times Along Line 3 Route in Minnesota; Construction Must Stop Immediately

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency now says that Enbridge has had at least 27 spills of drilling fluid during the construction of the controversial Line 3 pipeline. Enbridge has polluted the water at 63% of their horizontal directional drilling (HDD) sites with drilling fluid containing numerous polluting chemicals, despite claiming that HDD is Enbridge the safest technology available. These spills are a violation of Enbridge’s water crossing permit. 

Nearly 700 Indigenous-led water protectors and allies have been arrested or cited for peacefully protesting the construction of Line 3 in Minnesota. The pipeline is being constructed through critical waterways in violation of Indigenous treaty rights. 

In response, Sierra Club North Star Chapter Director Margaret Levin released the following statement: 

“Enbridge hasn’t even finished construction on Line 3 and already they’ve polluted rivers with drilling fluid at over half of the Horizontal Drilling crossings, violating their permits. 

Why should we trust them to finish construction on this pipeline, let alone to run hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of the world’s dirtiest oil through it? The MPCA acknowledged that Enbridge violated their permits, and yet the Walz administration has still taken no significant action to hold them accountable. It’s long past time for the Biden administration to step in and stop this disastrous project from doing irreparable damage to Minnesota’s waterways.”