Activists Drop ‘Stop Line 5’ Banner From Stone Arch Bridge, Urge Michigan to Block Enbridge Line 5 Tunnel Permits

Minneapolis, MN — Stop Line 5 activists dropped a huge banner that read “Stop Line 5” from the Stone Arch Bridge, which spans across the Mississippi River on Tuesday morning and called on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to “Deny the Line 5 tunnel permits.” One of Enbridge’s two contentious oil pipeline construction proposals for Line 5 includes tunneling across the Straits of Mackinac, a sacred land to the Anishinaabe people of the Bay Mills Indian Community, who’ve banned the project.

The Line 5 permit would use horizontal directional drilling for a planned 21‑foot‑wide concrete tunnel beneath the straits, which split Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Originally agreed upon in 2018, this project has faced a wide range of opposition and environmentalists fear that if constructed, an oil spill into the Great Lakes would be disastrous.

Groups present on Tuesday morning included Three Waters Pipeline Resistance, Sunrise Twin Cities, and Climate Defiance Minnesota. Activists standing on the bridge held various signs that connected to form sentences that read: “WHITMER DENY THE LINE 5 TUNNEL PERMIT, OR WE WILL HAUNT YOU” and “WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? THE GREAT LAKES? OR TRUMPS PIPELINE?”

“The Midwest is choking on wildfire smoke from climate change every summer,” said Three Waters Pipeline Resistance activist Tom Hoy in a press release.

“Gretchen Whitmer needs to grow a spine, stand up to Trump and deny the Line 5 permits. We’re sending a message that the community in Minnesota will fight this pipeline just like we fought Enbridge’s Line 3,” said Hoy.

Activists on the Stone Arch Bridge holding various signs. Photo submitted by Three Waters Pipeline Resistance.

Up high drone angle of the Stone Arch Bridge banner drop over the Mississippi River. Photo submitted by Three Waters Pipeline Resistance.

Three Waters Pipeline Resistance sent a letter to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on June 24, asking Ellison to contact Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to oppose “the issuance or reissuance of permits from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE)” for the proposed Line 5 tunnel. Also mentioned in the letter was Enbridge’s various Line 3 construction violations in Minnesota, that includes: aquifer breaches, groundwater releases and drilling mud releases and one instance of an aquifer breach in Clearbrook, in which Enbridge was forced to pay $3.32 million for failure to follow environmental laws.

Line 5 is a 645-mile pipeline that is used to transport crude oil and natural gas liquid from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The pipeline reportedly transports around 540,000 barrels per day. President Donald Trump’s energy emergency declaration in January of 2025 fast-tracked federal review of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, gaining national emergency status in April 2025.

Line 5 in particular is owned and operated by Enbridge, a Canadian company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The crude oil and natural gas liquids that move through the pipeline are transported for shippers, various companies that are contracted with Enbridge to use the pipeline. The oil and natural gas liquids are then delivered to propane facilities, refineries and used for other products in Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario. In terms of who owns the actual oil, it is likely a mix of oil producers, traders, marketers and refiners.

Multiple agencies are currently involved in the Line 5 tunneling permit review. The Michigan Public Service Commission approved Enbridge’s application in December of 2023 to relocate the Straits segment of the pipeline into a tunnel beneath the lakebed.

Activists say that the permits under consideration, if allowed, would introduce over six million gallons of wastewater to be discharged daily into Lake Michigan over the six years of construction of the Line 5 tunnel. Furthermore, they say, “it is unacceptable to risk 20% of the world’s freshwater to develop new fossil fuel infrastructure in 2026 when the damage from climate change is obvious and accelerating.”