Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
SUPERIOR, Wis. — The Wisconsin Department of Natural issued a permit for wetland and waterway crossings required for Enbridge to replace a 14-mile segment of pipeline, called Line 3, in Douglas County.
Line 3 extends from Alberta, Canada, through North Dakota and Minnesota to Superior. The project in Wisconsin involves replacing the 1960s vintage 34-inch pipe with a new 36-inch diameter pipeline that could carry up to 760,000 barrels per day.
The pipeline would cross about 14 miles of land, mostly following the old pipeline route in the town of Superior, village of Superior and city of Superior, terminating at Enbridge’s Superior terminal.
Enbridge had also proposed construction of a new 30-inch diameter crude oil pipeline, called Sandpiper, that could carry up to 375,000 barrels per day and extend 600 miles from the Bakken Shale region in North Dakota through Minnesota to Superior.
Enbridge officials said late Thursday the company will withdraw its applications with Minnesota regulators for the Sandpiper Pipeline, however, and delay the project for at least five years.
Enbridge said the pipeline will be delayed until North Dakota oil production recovers sufficiently to support the need for the pipeline.
“Based on updated projections, (Enbridge) believes that new pipeline capacity will not likely be needed until beyond the company’s five-year planning horizon,” the company said in a press release.
“At this time, we are only addressing the permits for Line 3. The next steps for our review of the Sandpiper permit application will depend on the regulatory decision process in the state of Minnesota,” Ben Callan, WDNR project manager, said.
Before any construction can occur on Line 3, permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be addressed through a separate federal process.
The WDNR has completed an environmental impact statement process to evaluate potential impacts of both Line 3 and Sandpiper to provide information to the public and decision makers in advance of any regulatory decisions.