The Wisconsin Wetlands Association (WWA) recently submitted comments to the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on their draft ‘combined decision document,’ for the Enbridge Line 5 project. The document included their Draft Environmental Assessment, Draft Section 404(b)(1) Guidelines Evaluation, and Draft Public Interest Review.
WWA’s comments centered on the need for the agency to complete a more thorough review of readily available data generated by WWA and partners. Given the unstable and erosion-prone watershed that the project will traverse, our position is that the agency has not sufficiently considered the information needed to reliably understand and assess how or where the construction and operation of the proposed pipeline will increase the landscape’s vulnerability to fluvial erosion hazards. Our comments also highlight how the agency failed to consider the downstream impacts associated with the disturbance of upper watershed wetlands and along stream corridors. In its comments, WWA specifically requested that USACE explore the relevant data and release a revised decision document for further public review.
At the state level, WWA made similar comments to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources when they released their draft Environmental Impact Statement in December of 2021. The state’s final Environmental Impact Statement was also released this week and includes a thorough analysis of the fluvial erosion hazards and geohazards associated with the proposed project in Chapter 5.6. Read more about the DNR Environmental Impact Statement here.
Related content
Making strides and mapping restoration opportunities
Learn more about WWA’s work in the region in this recent update.
Making a case for wetlands: Examining the link between wetland loss and flood damage