A group of about 25 people spent their lunch breaks standing on a street corner in front of the Federal Building chanting \u201cWater is life!\u201d Tuesday afternoon. They stood only yards away from Gold Creek, but they weren\u2019t referring to it or any other body of water in Alaska for that matter.<\/p>\n
The protest was part of an international day of action, during which demonstrators across the country stood in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux and everybody fighting the development of the Dakota Access pipeline, an underground oil pipeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe support the people behind Standing Rock, especially First Nations people who have been here a hell of a lot longer than you or I,\u201d said Marlin Bowles, a retired biologist who participated in the protest Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind Dakota Access, says that the pipeline \u2014 which will run under sacred tribal land, Lake Oahe and the Missouri River \u2014 will not rupture polluting water sources. Thousands of people across the country who attended protests similar to Juneau\u2019s on Tuesday aren\u2019t buying it. Bowles is among them.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in charge of these pipelines always deny that there are going to be leaks, but they always happen,\u201d he told the Empire.<\/p>\n
Three years ago, an oil pipeline in North Dakota ruptured and dumped 865,000 gallons of oil onto a nearby farm, the New York Times recently reported.<\/p>\n
The Army Corps has blocked the construction of the pipeline \u201con or under Corps land bordering Lake Oahe\u201d until it decides whether to grant Energy Transfer an easement, according to a press release the corps released Monday.<\/p>\n
Many of the hundreds of protests held in conjunction with the day of action took place outside of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers offices, where demonstrators urged the corps to deny the easement.<\/p>\n
John Sonin, the organizer of Juneau\u2019s protest, decided not to hold the demonstration at the Army Corps office. It is located in the Mendenhall Valley, and Sonin figured a protest in front of the Federal Building would get more attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more blatant, I guess,\u201d he said in between leading protest chants.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t wrong. Between noon and 1 p.m., several people driving by honked and waved in support of the demonstration. At one point, a man on a bike chanted \u201cCan\u2019t drink oil!\u201d as he pedaled by.<\/p>\n
The Juneau protest wasn\u2019t directly in front of the Army Corps\u2019 office, but demonstrators didn\u2019t forget their audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here to support Standing Rock and to urge the Army Corps to deny the permits,\u201d said protestor Danielle Redmond. \u201cI\u2019m here because I think this is so important; water is life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Redmond didn\u2019t attend the event alone. Her 1-year-old son Teo slept in a sling against her chest as she waved her \u201cWater is Life\u201d sign. She was quick to note that \u201cit\u2019s not his first protest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Redmond and others in the crowd, including Sonin and Bowles, expressed a dire sense of urgency for the Obama administration to stop Dakota Access now before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in early next year. Trump, they fear, will not be as receptive to environmental concerns, and he will be less likely to stop the Dakota Access pipeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the Trump administration gets in, it\u2019s going to be more difficult,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cNot only will they try to block stuff like this, they\u2019ll try to turn back the clock on things that have already been decided.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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