(UNDATED) Environmental groups have asked the Department of Natural Resources to take a more- comprehensive look at two major pipelines being proposed for Wisconsin.

The Enbridge Corporation pipelines would carry oil from Superior to Delavan while a smaller north-flowing pipe carries a product to dilute petroleum. Both would be along an existing pipeline corridor. They would cross more than 200 rivers or streams and about 75 miles of wetlands and during construction, several thousand acres of land -- including some riverbanks -- would be disturbed.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are reviewing the project. The state has done what’s called an “environmental assessment,” a fairly common type of analysis, but four environmental groups have asked for a more extensive review called an environmental impact statement.

Lori Grant is with the River Alliance of Wisconsin. She says the environmental assessment takes a very general approach to waterway crossings, and she says her group feels that given broad differences in soil types, stream types and wetland types over the broad stretch of this project, that a “one-size-fits-all” approach just doesn’t work.

Grant concedes that an environmental impact statement can be more expensive and take more time, but she says the EIS is the best way to get a full range of information on the table. She says Enbridge has had spills and leaks at some of its other pipelines around the U.S.

DNR energy office director Dave Seibert says waterway crossings are an important issue, and that pipeline companies are sometimes told to make adjustments. He says examples would be allowing less cutting of right of way to do work, different techniques for crossing streams and maybe additional erosion control measures. He says there’s a whole “toolbox” of methods they could apply as permit conditions.

Seibert says the DNR has received a number of comments about the Enbridge case. The agency may make some permit recommendations by the end of the week. The DNR only does one or two environmental impact statements per year.