Nov 28, 2018 - Water Protectors Expose Hidden Line 3 Pipe-yard near Fond Du Lac Reservation

ATKINSON, MN – At sunrise Tuesday (11/27/18) morning, water protectors stood up for Mother Earth and erected a tipi in front of a hidden Enbridge Line 3 pipeyard just south of the Fond du Lac reservation in Northern Minnesota. One water protector was locked to a tipi erected in the path of trucks unloading Line 3 pipes in a location hidden behind Omar’s Sand and Gravel pit.

Police gave no warnings or notice and arrested two other water protectors. After, police pulled on the tipi poles of the water protector suspended 25 feet in the air, which nearly toppled. Once the water protector was on the ground, they were also arrested and are currently being held in Carlton County Jail.

Enbridge was outed for lack of proper permits for its pipeyards in 2017, as Minnesota law requires all environmental review be complete before any pipeyard permits can be issued. Enbridge has had pipes in Minnesota for over 3 years. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency noted the lack of proper permitting in a March 2017 letter to Enbridge stating: “In the future, you need to ensure that all applicable environmental review has been completed prior to applying for CSW Permit coverage and land disturbing activities.”

The stockpile of pipes exposed today was not in a designated storage yard for pipelines, it was hidden in a gravel pit.

While suspended near stacks of pipeline slated to send nearly 1 million barrels of tar sands oil per day through the Mississippi River headwaters to the shore of Lake Superior, one water protector said, “For the water, for the treaty rights of indigenous peoples, for our future!”

West of the illegal pipeyard, other water protectors exposed more pipes being offloaded from trains near the Leech Lake reservation.

Learn more at: stopline3.org