Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Ironwood — The city of Mellen received $1.5 million from Enbridge Inc., Tuesday, completing the sale of property the city council approved last November.
The money pays for five acres of land between Mellen and Copper Falls State park that Enbridge purchased from the city, Enbridge communications specialist Juli Kellner said in a news release. The land is needed for the planned reroute of the company’s Line 5 pipeline.
Other than when construction is taking place, Kellner said the property will remain open to public use.
Mellen will pay $500,000 of the $1.5 million it received in the sale to Ashland County, according to Kellner, with the rest being used for various community needs.
“Additionally, when the Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation Project is built, the company will pay an additional $3.25 million to the city of Mellen,” she said.
Enbridge is rerouting its Line 5 pipeline — which carries light crude and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin and Sarnia, Ontario — in response to litigation brought by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to force a roughly 12-mile section of pipeline off tribal land.
In a Feb. 25 letter posted on the band’s Facebook page, Tribal Chairman Michael Wiggins said company officials met with tribal leaders in late February and the tribe asked Enbridge pay $45 million as compensation for the pipeline’s presence on tribal land.
“Since June 3, 2013, Enbridge has operated Line 5 across the band’s reservation in trespass, in violation of band and federal law. We have requested that Enbridge pay the band $45 million as compensation for this trespass,” Wiggins wrote. “Enbridge owes a debt to our community, a very substantial debt from years of trespass and abuse to our lands and resources. To show good faith, Enbridge must pay this debt now, without contingencies.”
Wiggins wrote the payment would be for past damages and the tribal council was still committed to forcing the pipeline out of the Bad River watershed.
In response to the letter, Enbridge officials confirmed the meeting took place and said they look forward to continuing talks.
“We are pleased to have had the opportunity to meet with the full Bad River Tribal Council and appreciated their invitation to do so. We look forward to continued discussions with the council in the weeks ahead,” said Brad Shamla, Enbridge’s vice president for U.S. operations.
Enbridge has started the process of filing the necessary applications for construction to move the pipeline, which Kellner said is expected to take roughly 12 months.
Part of the reroute project will likely include county land in northwestern Iron County. In November, the county entered into an option agreement with Enbridge that gave the company the right to purchase an easement on 11 county parcels near the border of the towns of Saxon and Gurney if it proceeded with the reroute.
Enbridge paid Iron County $110,130 for the option on roughly 115.39 acres — of which approximately 45.5 acres would be actual easement land and the rest needed during construction. The company also paid Iron County a total of $395,770 in a $10-per-foot signing bonus for the 39,577 of proposed pipeline on county land.
This bonus brought the total Enbridge paid Iron County to $505,900.
At the November county board meeting, Enbridge representatives said the county’s payment was lower than the city of Mellen’s because the Mellen deal already included money for any potential negative impacts or damages that result from the construction of the pipeline. Those figures would be determined in the future in Iron County’s case.
