This is a blog post about the letter I wrote last week to 55th Chief of Engineers, Lieutenant General Spellmon, of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding my concerns on Enbridge’s Line 3/93, especially here in Clearwater County. I meet with the County Commissioners tomorrow to review these concerns and discuss response readiness.
Boozhoo, Lieutenant General Spellmon,
I’m a retired Metallurgical Engineer writing from 1855 Treaty Territory regarding growing concerns for the current Enbridge worksite at Walker Brook in Clearwater County, Minnesota. These concerns were only heightened by the December 7 Keystone pipeline rupture at Mill Creek, a geography so similar to ours with a creek adjacent to an uphill pipeline corridor. We appreciate the work you are doing there in response to the latest Keystone pipeline failure. We are hopeful to prevent a need for similar response at our location, which geologically is far more water-filled and unstable than that of the Kansas plains.
We’ve been watching Walker Brook valley with concern since early August when we noticed Enbridge’s timber matting access road had been reinstalled west of Clearwater County 110. In late August, my partner discovered an open hole above the pipeline corridor and we began watching this place even more closely. [47-degrees, 47-minutes, 63-seconds, and -95-degrees, 28-minutes, 35-seconds.]
This photo shows upwelling as indicated by surface ripples. Since then, we’ve taken several hikes in to monitor and test at this location, concerned about impacts to the land and water quality.
Located within a 399-acre section of state tax land and County Memorial Forest, this crossing of Enbridge’s Line 3/93 pipeline at Walker Brook is in a precarious valley of deep glacial till and forested peatbog very similar to LaSalle Valley, where Enbridge is also currently struggling to remediate multiple upwelling water locations. These two valleys are like mirror images of each other on either side of the Mississippi River Line 3/93 crossing, where Enbridge experienced multiple frac-outs into the large wetlands of Mississippi River headwaters. This is clearly a fragile geology, full of water, which opponents to the Line 3 project testified was too much of a risk for a Tar Sands pipeline project.
We see now, that heeding citizen warnings would have been prudent. The applicant’s route was a bad idea that was not given enough geotechnical or hydrological study to assure prevention of avoidable tragedies. We remain disappointed that the USACE refused to perform an EIS as that work may have saved us these troubles. A year after Enbridge began flowing tar sands crude through their pipeline, we still await resolution of upwards of 4 dozen sites of deep groundwater upwellings, many of which, based on Enbridge’s lack of transparent communication regarding their environmental failures both during construction and since formal construction ended, we believe the state remains ignorant.
As a retired Metallurgical Engineer, my concerns include those regarding the pipeline integrity in Walker Brook Valley. If the pipeline is floating in a veneer of peat and/or being fatigued by the fluctuating water levels, the stresses could exceed designed metallurgical limits. I am concerned the Canadian Corporation, as evidenced in this video, has found this installation to be more problematic than expected. We know that Enbridge has struggled to complete their work at this crossing for over a year, yet there has been no release of information on this site to the public, save that done by Waadookawaad Amikwag in their announcements and webinars. Nor does it appear the DNR or MPCA are communicating with Clearwater County Commissioners or the County Land Commissioner on this concern. As this is Clearwater County Memorial Forest, public land with multiple deer stands as hunting remains open this weekend, we still have no notice of this danger to the public from the state or federal agencies. We are concerned that Enbridge alone knows of the risks here and that state and federal agencies may remain uninformed.
You received memos from Minnesota US Representative Betty McCollum, on 10/14/22, and Representative Ilhan Omar more recently, regarding the concerns of Waadookawaad Amikwag, a citizen scientist group seeking your assistance for federal investigation of this situation. As USEPA recently replied to Representative McCollum’s memo, we look forward to receiving your response soon as well. We are hopeful for a robust response to our specific concerns of deep underground upwelling water flows.
I write today with evidence of recent dirt piles adjacent to the Enbridge Line 3/93 corridor; another possible indication this project in the valley may involve pipeline integrity concerns.
In addition, we hold concerns for the excessive water removal from the valley as Walker Brook feeds The Red River of the North. Water being pumped up the hillside and over the Laurentian Divide now overwhelms the Enbridge dewatering station and flows across County 110 north of the project site, as indicated in the photo below. These ponds and brook that result are situated in the Mississippi River watershed and the excess water appears bound for Daniel Lake in the Clearwater State Wildlife Management Area. How will these millions of gallons of water being moved from one watershed to another impact both watersheds and the wildlife and people who rely on them?
Finally, we are concerned to know if this location has been reported to PHMSA and if their representatives might be of assistance to watch closely over this worksite of concern. And we urge your Engineers to ask Waadookawaad Amikwag for assistance as they are watching closely and have data and evidence on the nature of this concern that might be helpful in resolution.
We look forward to watching state and federal agencies build relationships of trust with the public monitors to ensure full enforcement of the Clean Water Act in Clearwater County and across Minnesota.
Thank you for your consideration. Miigwech Bizindaawiyeg.
Sincerely, Jami Gaither Alida, MN 218-657-2321
cc: Michael S. Regan, USEPA Alan K. Mayberry, PHMSA Timothy Gaither, PHMSA U.S. Congresswoman Betty McCollum, Minnesota 4th District U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Minnesota 5th District Anna Hotz, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Randall Doneen, Minnesota DNR Waadookawaad Amikwag Sheriff Darin Halverson, Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office Andy Anderson, Clearwater County CCSO EMS Bruce Cox, Clearwater County Land Commissioner
Got word from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Secretary Seuffert Friday that it was posted to the Docket!!
Spent part of the weekend reviewing details on the massive 588,000+ gallon Keystone Pipeline “spill”… as the industry likes to call even these massive outpourings of oil from their pipeline failures.
Just a Spill. Really?!? Note how oil moves uphill from the failure site. You know spills that go uphill anywhere in your world?
Sure looks like a blast site to me. Was there so much pressure the crude exploded into the land?
So many questions. And sadly, no likely confirmed answers anytime soon – potentially for years – while investigators determine what happened and what will be required for remediation and to prevent recurrence. The lack of public transparency to what our fossil fuel companies get away with is appalling. If we knew, we’d surely do something about it?
Which is why they work so hard to assure the details stay under wraps… as best they can. This is why citizen monitoring groups like Waadookawaad Amikwag are so critical.
As a quality engineer who has read through reports on these kinds of investigations, including documents from the Kalamazoo failure and the Consent Decree that followed, I am doubtful for true accountability. I’m doubtful we will see much investigation by independent forensic engineers, let alone any real change to prevent recurrence. We see over and again how little PHMSA holds carriers accountable. So forgiving when the company fixes the failures in their control documentation and trainings… even after years of non-compliance. This is how stuff like this happens! Do they not understand that? No accountability means no reason for Enbridge to not do the same thing again. Yet, why should PHMSA even try? No one is watching. No one who has the will and ability to do anything about it anyway.
Besides, how can one truly be accountable for cleanup of a mess like this?
Mill Creek SpillTemporary dam installationTemp Dam: 3.6 miles downstream
The type of oil in the Keystone pipeline is sludgy and often sinks to the bottom of waterways – making it more difficult to clean than conventional crude oil. …
Amy Burgin, a river ecosystem expert, said the public will need more specifics to understand the potential ramifications of the spill. …“Rivers are not meant to stay put — they move and they move whatever gets into them,” she said. “So oil is something that becomes very difficult to clean up from an aquatic system.” Burgin is a scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research and a professor at the University of Kansas Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.”
EPA anticipates removal activities will extend into next week.
The ill-fated Keystone Pipeline has spilled yet again. On December 7, the pipeline leaked near Washington, Kansas, resulting in a spill of at least 14,000 barrels – over 500,000 gallons – of tarsands, benzene and other unknown chemicals into nearby land and waterways, the largest US oil spill in nearly a decade. It’s worth understanding, in part because it serves as a cautionary tale for carbon pipeline development.”
I found this comment interesting: “TC Oil was in the process of running an ILI tool. The ILI tool is currently downstream of the failure location. TC Oil had bypassed the Hope, Kansas, pump station, the next station downstream, in preparation for the roll to pass when the failure occurred.” Paul did too.
Interestingly, the CAO states that TC Energy was running an in-line inspection (ILI or smart PIG) at the time of the rupture, and that this tool was south of the rupture site. An ILI is sort of like an ultrasound, NMR or CAT scan for a pipeline. Assuming the tool was being run with the flow of the oil, this suggests that TC Energy may have very recent ILI data on the pipe segment that burst.Generally speaking, pipeline ruptures and other disasters are caused by a combination of factors. While official reports may identify a primary cause, such as a defective weld, the defect could be caused by a combination of underlying reasons, such as rushed work, inadequate training, defective materials, etc. The forensic analysis of pipeline failures is a well-established science, so hopefully, PHMSA will look more deeply than the direct technical cause.”
From the Order: The end of a long lost of previous issues… This list confirms my earlier assessment that it might be years before we know much. Two and a half years and counting for their last “spill”.
As Paul also writes:
TC Energy was originally named TransCanada. The Keystone Pipeline was TransCanada’s first major crude oil pipeline development project. It was in a race with Enbridge to provide pipeline capacity to export tar sands oil from Canada to the US. TC Energy and Enbridge were competing for a share of a limited market. TC Energy started construction on the Keystone Pipeline in 2009 and it came online in the spring of 2010, just months before Enbridge brought its new Alberta Clipper Pipeline into service.”
RUSHED construction… like Line 3’s 9-month installation – a contributing factor?
Further there’s this (which mean really just go read his whole article!!):
In part due to higher-than-expected steel prices, competition for labor and materials, and perhaps management errors and inexperience in oil pipeline development, the Keystone Pipeline construction project suffered from a 145% cost overrun for its Canadian portion, and a 92% cost overrun for its US portion. Some of TransCanada’s customers, including Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing, LLC, the National Cooperative Refinery Association, and Sinclair Oil Corporation, were not best pleased and sued TransCanada in a Canadian court to void their long-term contracts, because the projected costs to use the Keystone Pipeline were much more than expected. It seems likely that during construction TransCanada knew about the cost overruns and may have been cutting corners to save money.”
On another interesting factor.
It’s distributing and fascinating. Hard to believe how these culprits are allowed to keep failing… Over and again… Just can’t see how it happens without some help from government or grift. I remember steel mill days. I know how things are in the real world. I used to ask new hires in training,”What do we make here?” Steel. That was the typical answer. I told them what we make is money, steel is just how we do it. This was the reality I learned in the male-dominated industry. Part of the reason I left was not being heard. If only I’d known that kind of ‘ignoring me’ was nothing on what the state of Minnesota can dish out.
I’d like PHMSA to come to Walker Brook and, if it applies, use this same language from their order in Kansas for Enbridge’s Line 3.
After evaluating the foregoing preliminary findings of fact, and having considered the characteristics of the pipeline, including the prior failures of the pipeline; the hazardous nature of the material (crude oil) transported; the uncertainty as to the root cause(s) of the Failure; the existing and potential additional impacts to property, the environment, and wildlife; and the possibility that the same condition(s) that may have caused the failure remain present in the pipeline and could lead to additional failures; I find that continued operation of the Affected Segment, as defined below, without corrective measures is or would be hazardous to life, property, or the environment, and that failure to issue this Order expeditiously would result in the likelihood of serious harm.”
I’ll give Paul the final words with the close to his very thorough blog.
The Rest of the Story
We won’t know the rest of the story for months. It will take time for the busted pipe to be removed, inspected and tested, and for PHMSA to release information about the cause. That being said, it’s likely that TC Energy already has a pretty good understanding of what went wrong, but due to liability concerns it won’t say anything in public.
The point of this blog is to highlight that many factors may contribute to failures, which is one of the reasons they are so difficult to prevent. The universe is constantly figuring out new ways to challenge humans, with the result that no pipeline is perfectly safe. Moreover, it is critical to consider not just the immediate causes of ruptures, but also all of the background factors that contribute to accidents, such as lack of experience, commercial pressures, competition for labor and material resources, new technology, increased project scale, product variations, etc.
While the chance of a pipeline failing at any particular location is quite low, the fact is that pipelines do fail and harm people and the environment. If a pipeline is built, it should be routed with an understanding that pipeline ruptures cannot be entirely prevented, such that routes should avoid families, vulnerable communities (such as nursing homes), businesses, and geohazards. Moreover, pipelines should be built to the highest possible safety standards without being rushed to completion by inexperienced developers.The Keystone Pipeline release saga provides a cautionary tale for the proposed tsunami of carbon pipelines. There is a risk that the tens of thousands of miles of proposed new carbon pipelines will be rushed to completion by inexperienced companies, in competition with each other for scarce labor and materials, regardless of working conditions, on routes chosen to minimize cost – all to rake in obscenely generous federal tax credits – thereby laying a foundation for a follow-on wave of carbon pipeline ruptures that harm or even kill the humans and animals living near them.
All that being said, the safest pipeline is one that is never built.”
Thanks, Paul.
Update 12/14/22
Keystone source cause remains unknown:
The order said TC Energy was running an in-line inspection using a device inside the pipeline that was some 80 miles (129 kilometers) past where the pipeline ruptured. Such devices are designed to fit tightly inside and are known as “pigs” because early wooden ones squeaked as they went through.
Three university petroleum engineering instructors who reviewed the regulators’ order ahead of Associated Press interviews pointed out the testing, which federal guidelines call for doing at least once every five years.
“That timing is definitely suspicious,” said Jennifer Miskimins, head of the Colorado School of Mines’ petroleum energy department. “It is like blowing a pea through a pod.”
She along with instructors from the University of Tulsa and Pennsylvania State University said moving a pig through the pipe would have required additional pressure. …
Mike Stafford, the University of Tulsa instructor, said such a location is typical of where pipes tend to fail. That’s because oil contains a little water that tends to separate, and when oil is carried up hills that water flows back down, causing corrosion.
While Sanjay Srinivasan, the Penn State professor, was skeptical that corrosion was to blame because it is a slow process, he took note of the failure occurring in a section with a lot of bends.
“It’s not unusual for those kinds of locations to go through some severe stress that can cause these things,” he said. ”If there is any weak spot, that’s when it’ll show up.” …
The regulators’ order said TC Energy cannot restart operations for the 96-mile (155-kilometer) Keystone segment from Steele City, Nebraska, south to Hope, Kansas, without their permission. It also said the company must reduce the operating pressure by 20% inside that segment of the pipeline.
The company also must identify the cause of the spill and submit a plan for finding similar problems elsewhere and conducting additional tests by early March.
So far, TC Energy has recovered 2,598 barrels of oil mixed with water from the 14,000-barrel release… So, how much oil was recovered exactly? We’ll never know…
Update 12/15/22 A bit of history on Keystone and its process.
Now the U.S. has invested heavily in switching the United States to renewable energy with the Inflation Reduction Act, and a major oil spill resurrects concerns about the transportation of oil.
It is poetic timing. On Friday, as part of their yearlong investigation of the fossil fuel industry, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform released documents from executives at major oil companies revealing that they recognize that their products are creating a climate emergency but that they have no real plans for changing course.”
A while back, my friend Nookomis Deb Topping, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of R.I.S.E. Coalition, invited me to take a road trip to Mackinac to testify against the Proposed Line 5 Tunnel Project in the Straits of Mackinac. [Another Dumb Enbridge Idea…] Here’s what we told the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on what Enbridge promises… vs. what they will deliver.
From the top (clockwise): Apparent frac-out bleeding from the headlands wetland into Mississippi River; Samples pulled from Mississippi River wetlands in locations of corridor (orange) and frac-out (black); Enbridge “Springs” where upwelling water erupts from the land in the location of the pipeline; Large, yet unremedied, deep water breach at MP1102.5 (400′ from the Nagaajiwanaang Fond du Lac Reservation boundary); Gray jelly-like eruptions from the land where Enbridge reported they’d fixed their breach (November, 2021) in LaSalle Valley yet evidence shows multiple eruptions still bleeding from the land (on 8-4-22 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources confirmed Enbridge’s 7-11-22 report that they were mistaken in their assessment of LaSalle issues being remedied).
The people in Michigan were very interested to see the Enbridge post-construction landscape in hopes it might open the eyes of the USACE to help them say, “No,” to Enbridge’s next dumb idea. Anyone can see these are grave concerns – and this one, as yet unreported to the public – indicates when Enbridge asks, we must say, “NEVER AGAIN!!”
SINKHOLE at Enbridge’s pipeline corridor in Walker Brook Valley (credit: Dan Gaither)
That Was Then… This is Now.
This past week, Waadookawaad Amikwag revealed twosites of upwelling water concerns, of dozens we’ve uncovered, along Enbridge’s Line 3/93 corridor. These ongoing concerns mean continued infiltration of our wetlands and bogs, doing unknown levels of harm.
We saw 198 members of the public engaged to hear our Presentation of Findings and 100 attended the Q&A discussion with the public later that evening. Eighty of them stayed for an extra twenty minutes of Q&A after the Action at the top of the hour! They were very interested in our work and so many questions remain unanswered.
We hope to get fact sheets and more updates out to the public soon. Keep up to date by subscribing to the Waadookawaad Amikwag YouTube channel. And Waadookawaad Amikwag has a website pending release.
Now, as winter closes in, we see more and more Enbridge presence at Walker Brook. Why do they need to have lights on at night? What are the risks? What is the state allowing them to do now? Without our knowledge. More importantly, without Tribal Consultation.
Walker Brook damages are even visible on Google Maps now from photos taken earlier this year. You can see here the entire valley full of destruction. Closer in, the degraded hillside is evident. Closer still, you can even see the sinkhole that’s opened in the ground above the Enbridge tar sands pipeline.
Of course, it’s worse today. Enbridge has 24/7 monitoring now. Only God and the MPCA know what they’re doing to the land and water now.
Walker Brook Access Road – Enbridge Work Site Remediating Construction Damages 13 months after they began pumping oil through their Line 3/93 tar sands pipeline. [Taken 11/18/22 18:48 hours from Clearwater County 110 looking west.]
Enbridge has two major Line 5 pipeline project proposals in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Minnesota’s experience with Enbridge’s Line 3 project is a story that tells them BOTH to say… “No!”
You can learn more about these post-construction damages at a November 16th webinar that Sierra Club North Star Chapter is hosting as a partner with Waadookawaad Amikwag. Here is the Facebook event and the website RSVP pages for the noontime presentation and the evening discussion!
Read below for more details on Minnesota’s horrific aftermath with Enbridge pipeline construction.
It never was the leaking pipeline that was gonna get us… it was the damages their construction brings to the water.
Lies during Permitting
For the full story, we’d have to do far too much weedy Application and Environmental Impact Statement review:
We might review the data gathered and presented by Enbridge ahead of construction, apparently NOT thorough enough to understand the unstable and water-filled geological landscape where they proposed their pipeline construction. The more we investigate here, the more clearly it shows how little the state agencies investigated as they evaluated permit applications? As we citizens review topo maps now, we see even more clearly what walking the land told us from the beginning: THIS IS A HORRIBLE place this for a tar sands pipeline.
We might re-read the testimony of experts, like Paul Stolen, testifying for Friends of the Headwaters, who advised AGAINST permitting a tar sands pipeline through this inconsistent glacial till, advising frac-outs could be frequent regardless of Enbridge’s promises about their “safer” Horizontal Directional Drilling process.
We might also consider Paul’s further testimony about LaSalle Valley, seeking a re-route around this sensitive area:
Not enough evidence for those in DNR and PCA reviewing and deciding upon the permits it seems… or perhaps they missed Paul’s prescient comments? We watched as the PUC seemingly ignored 68K comments in opposition of this project while only a few thousand (mostly via signed pre-printed postcards from Enbridge) voiced support.
Unfortunately, testimony from experts like Paul Stolen and similar citizen comments were ignored as Minnesota’s regulatory bodies permitted the project anyway.
Then Enbridge ran rampant over the land, RUSHING through their construction, which may well be the source for these MANY long-term water impacts and ongoing environmental remediation sites – STILL INCOMPLETE – a year after Enbridge began flowing tar sands through their pipeline.
Enbridge acted criminally, ignoring their construction permits and not reporting the damages from this willful violation. A hard lesson learned by Minnesotans in Enbridge’s company town of Clearbrook.
Lies During Construction
The First Discovered Breach: COVERED UP BY ENBRIDGE FOR MONTHS!
Discovered is the proper word to use here as Enbridge knew of the unrelenting groundwater surging from the earth when they were working to install their new tar sands pipeline – Line 3, now 93 – at their terminal in Clearbrook.
On or about January 21st, they discovered that their steel pilings [at a depth of 28′, on a low-risk construction permit allowing only 8-10 feet of trenching] had ruptured an artesian aquifer. Enbridge, while reporting water flow in their weekly reports to DNR, made no attempt to be clear about the situation, which was only discovered inadvertently during a mid-June lunchtime conversation between DNR and an Independent Environmental Monitor, which was explained during a DNR Office Hours session last year.
Note: This was mere days after the DNR issued a 10-fold increase in Enbridge’s Water Appropriation Permit – to Five Billion Gallons …which seems to have gotten NO REVIEW after discovery of this water surging from the land at Enbridge’s construction site? And when you know the inside baseball of communications between the state and tribal officials, you see the truly egregious nature of the timing of this approval. Perhaps a chat for another day as it’s not my story to tell.
Was a 10-fold increase… justified?
I continue to wonder how on earth the DNR could not see this OBVIOUS FAILURE by the Applicant to assess needs for construction. This request clearly deserved closer evaluation, especially for such a significant increase, DURING A DROUGHT YEAR, no less! How could Enbridge – pipeline construction experts one would assume – have such a POOR UNDERSTANDING of their needs for Water Appropriation? And, yes, Tribal consultation should have been a part of assessing this permitting change.
One might note that these “independent” monitors appear a perfunctory indicator of Enbridge’s adherence to unbiased practices – yet were they merely more window dressing to the Canadian corporation’s piss-poor plan for caring for our land? Almost half of these monitors were shown to be previous Enbridge contract employees!! [Thanks, Healing Minnesota Stories!]
That’s what Enbridge and the State call Independent?
So first we learned during permitting that Enbridge would not come clean on the real dangers their construction entails, and then we found Enbridge wouldn’t ADHERE to their permits ANYWAY! One might question, in fact, why there are no details provided on how Enbridge violated their Low Risk Construction permit at Clearbrook in the settlement documentation. Hmmm?
What do Permits MEAN if they can simply be ignored by an Applicant… without penalty?
Many Minnesotans continue to be baffled as state agencies and regulators keep listening to Enbridge, even as we continue to discover more and more about their deception.
It’s clear to us that Enbridge cannot be trusted. It seems more evident than ever that they are likely ill-equipped to actually remediate the damages they’ve caused.
Lies Post-Construction
The “FIXED” Breaches: Enbridge says, “OOPS! Not Quite Fixed After All!”
Back in August, Waadookawaad Amikwag – Those Who Help Beaver – visited LaSalle Valley where a SECOND Enbridge breach had been reported almost a year earlier. It was reported “fixed” in late 2021. [I say “late 2021” because the date has been reported by Enbridge as November by Jennifer Bjorhus back in August: “Pipeline operator Enbridge Energy said on its website that the LaSalle breach was grouted and fixed last November.“, while the recent settlement with the State, reported (Item 24 under LaSalle Creek Site): “On December 20, 2021, Enbridge reported that implementation of the 2021 LaSalle Corrective Action Plan had stopped groundwater discharge at the site.“ Who knows when Enbridge is constantly changing the story to fit their needed narrative?]
Far from being fixed, the team discovered many ongoing upwellings. Enbridge calls them seeps, yet this is the equipment they are using to measure just ONE of these “seeps”. This site was initially reported as leaking just under 10M gallons. Yet with one seep location showing almost a million gallons each month, based on our observations of their Weir box in the field, that is surely adding up!! Is anyone actually counting all the gallons lost due to Enbridge’s negligence?
Weir box measuring Enbridge “seep” location at LaSalle Creek, 8-28-22
Note that Enbridge also reported their Clearbrook breach remedied just days before it’s one-year anniversary… yet in the recent settlement, that claim was also proven to be premature: “On September 1, 2022, Enbridge informed DNR that a small groundwater seep had emerged near the Clearbrook Site repair at an estimated rate of ½ gallons per minute.” Sooo…. Not Fixed. While initial reports spoke of 50M gallons, that later nearly doubled, and, if flow continues… who knows? Enbridge isn’t counting the gallons at this site it seems.
The settlement notes of the third reported Enbridge breach, this one at MP1102.5, just 400′ outside Fond du Lac Reservation, that it TOO is “fixed”! For now maybe? Waadookawaad Amikwag continues to ground-truth these Enbridge claims. 219 millions gallons of water were reported lost.
Continued Coverup by Enbridge… and the State
Waadookawaad Amikwag has document dozens of upwelling water sites along Enbridge’s corridor. We have tried talking with Minnesota Agency contacts to no avail. [Most won’t even respond to my emails anymore.] We offered to share data, if they were interested but they never asked (as was reported by Bjorhus above). Seems they are only interested in the Enbridge narrative.
The State STILL HAVEN’T ASKED for any of our data.
In fact, we’re still awaiting a response on a draft Memorandum of Agreement for this data use… sent over a month ago. Meanwhile, we see continued infiltration of Enbridge in our bogs and wetlands.
The settlement Enbridge has negotiated with state regulators is far too premature based on grounded evidence along the Line 3/93 corridor. There are dozens of sites of concern that need review. We’ve documented plainly and clearly, with water testing, photographs, thermal imaging and drone footage, at least two sites of breached groundwater upwelling that remain UNREPORTED to the public by State Agencies.
In response to Healing Minnesota Stories’ questions, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) said: “While the investigation is ongoing, we cannot provide details about the situation.”
The DNR continued: “However, we want to correct your suggestion that there is an aquifer breach at this site. Based on our work thus far, the Minnesota DNR has found no evidence of an aquifer breach. Instead, the Walker Brook location appears to have an upwelling of shallow groundwater resources that has complicated site restoration.”
The MPCA continued: “The MPCA is in regular communication with on-site independent environmental monitors to ensure the company adheres to permits that remain in place while the company works to restore the site.”
Just because the matter is under investigation shouldn’t preclude agencies from releasing basic information.”
Is MN DNR using Enbridge tactics to downplay the situation… “No evidence of an Aquifer breach!!” Does that mean they think this situation is not a problem?
You decide. Does this photo of the Valley at Walker Brook look like a problem to You?
Enbridge’s Line 3/93 second crossing of Walker Brook: An unreported site of groundwater upwelling, currently getting more complex and looking more dangerous each month, rather then being remediated.
We might also consider, as part of our review of this project and its outcomes, re-listening to the voices of our children, who protested… asking us adults for NO MORE FOSSIL FUEL INFRASTRUCTURE development, asking us to recognize how much we have already polluted their world and to heed their call to awaken to the increasingly scary dangers of climate change… Their everyday nightmare.
THE AG’s REPORTED SETTLEMENT WITH ENBRIDGE APPEARS perhaps PREMATURE?
Video shows the 10/5/22 examination of the landscape within Walker Brook Valley at Enbridge’s second crossing of the small stream, including evidence showing deep water upwelling from the ground. This is along the RA-05 portion of the corridor route in Clearwater County. It is now evident that deep underground water (at a constant 45°F) is being released to the surface and bled from the hillside down and into the forest to the south of the clear-cut corridor. A test well has been installed and extensive timber matting has been placed through the wetlands and into the valley. The large hole in the land, downhill (and thus downstream) from the well installation, now shows gray contamination buildup on the branches reaching in from the sides of the sinkhole. In addition, there is an oily sheen on the surface of the sinkhole now. While testing has not been completed to confirm this is a petroleum-based sheen, its surface behavior is indicative of this possibility. The water temperature coming into the sinkhole is colder than when it leaves, likely due to surface solar and air exposure of the cold, deep, underground water bleeding in from uphill and from below. The water within the hole is not cold like deeper groundwater so may be a superficial water body. Yet, the bottom undulates and a ski pole goes deep into the hole past the apparent bottom. Black piping diverts water, from both the timber matting area and the large sinkhole, to the southwest, ending at the forest’s edge and flowing on into Walker Brook below. This water all tests at about 45-50 degrees, indicating a deep water breach.
Video was made between 1500 and 1800 hours on 10/5/22.
Narrative – Jami Gaither for Waadookawaad Amikwag: Enbridge’s deep water upwelling at their Line 3 crossing of Walker Brook includes a massive timber matting addition. Today’s review discusses a near-platform identification of biological sheen, moves to the sinkhole, and then reviews downhill piping outlets where Enbridge is diverting water from its corridor breach to the nearby forest edge.
Before we go too far, as there is so much to catch in this video, here’s a bit more to help understanding.
Enbridge has an UNREPORTED-to-the-public breach of deep groundwater, on Minnesota public land.
This post-construction damage now requires a return to the wetlands of heavy equipment.
The new work-site appears to be polluting the water with oily sheen producing chemicals.
An unknown quantity of deep groundwater is bleeding from the land with Enbridge showing no apparent capability to stop the flow, even as we are now a full year post-construction.
The results and impacts of the Enbridge construction for their new Line 3 pipeline have created unsafe conditions and possibly resulted in a situation that cannot be repaired.
The impacts of these environmental failures on the underground infrastructure are unknown and could be creating forces on the pipeline that bring even more dangerous concerns.
Run-off from underground fills the valley consuming the brook into a pond at the valley floor at this location, not yet disclosed to the public by Minnesota agencies. Investigation of pooling near the platform brought concern of an oily sheen. A touch into the surface revealed a hole that remains open, indicating a biological sheen, not one with petroleum contamination. Water temps measured in the 40’s were indicative of a deep water upwelling.
Tubing sections from under the platform lead to this 4’ x 6’ sinkhole that continuously burps up air and water. Following installation of a test well, we see evidence of residue coating surfaces of roots and the sides of the hole. The 10/5/22 photo compares poorly with the clarity of this area captured on 8/25/22. The surface now has a sheen as well, which, upon disturbance, shows the film closing back in on itself, indicating a petroleum-based contamination. It seems Enbridge’s attempts at remediation are creating more pollution impacts than resolution of their deep water upwelling. As this land is public-access, it creates public safety concerns. We can also see in this area how the temperature changes from the inlet – which appears to be capturing uphill run-off – to the sinkhole itself; a gain of 7-8°F in a short distance.
As we move to the outlet piping running into the edge of the forest at the edge of Enbridge’s Line 3 project clearcut, we find more cold water in the 40’s rushing quickly into the land. It is clear that there is a large amount of water being bled from underground in this location, having an unknown impact on the stability of the land around this pipeline installation, as evidenced most strongly by the sinkhole in the corridor very near the pipeline itself.
The only times the powerful bring change are when it suits their aims… or when enough of us speak up to force them to bring needed change.
Mary Engelbreit calendar page on Margaret Mead’s encouragement
These last few weeks, Waadookawaad Amikwag has been working hard to speak up and be heard. Here’s a summary of the last couple months of our work:
Two months ago, we reported on the second Enbridge Breachiversary – the one year point of unrelenting flow from Enbridge’s deep water breach in LaSalle Valley. In case you missed it, here was reporting on the first Enbridge breach of an artesian aquifer at Clearbrook, endangering local nearby calcareous fens. And, still leaking, never reported remedied, is the MP1102.5 aquifer breach 400′ west of the Nagaajiwanaang (Fond du Lac Reservation) boundary. The latest Fond du Lac Band report on the concern noted flow reduced to six gallons a minute. Enbridge calls that flow a “seep” though it equates to over a quarter million gallons of water each month.
On September 28th, we issued a call for help to the Minnesota Congressional Representatives and Senators, asking they request the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) initiate a federal investigation of these concerns. Waadookawaad Amikwag finds evidence that the Clean Water Act, turning 50 years old this month, is being wantonly violated here in Minnesota as officials and agencies downplay and hide the impacts we’re witnessing.
September 28th to October 2nd, R.I.S.E. Coalition held a 2nd Annual Firelight Treaty Encampment to help educate the community on Treaty Rights and Responsibilities, support the field workers monitoring the nearby post-construction Enbridge Line 3/93 damages, and holding space in ceremony for nibi miinawaa manoomin (water and wild rice).
On October 1st, the anniversary of oil flow through Line 3/93, Honor the Earth issued a call to action as well, asking for a federal-level independent investigation of the post-construction situation here in Northern Minnesota’s Indian Country. Healing Minnesota Stories Scott Russell also shared this call and more details about Waadookawaad Amikwag’s field work.
October 6th, Waadookawaad Amikwag issued a draft Memorandum of Agreement on behalf of our flyover data partners (R.I.S.E. Coalition, Sierra Club, Honor the Earth, MN350, and White Earth Reservation) to AG Ellison along with DNR Commissioner Strommen, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Kessler, and Public Utilities Chair Sieben. We asked for a response by October 21st on what agreements we might make around working together, using all the data that Water Protectors have gathered, to determine 1) how we can stop additional harms by Enbridge to the land and water and 2) find the least damaging methods, if they exist, to remediate the harms Enbridge has caused.
While we see new horrors each week in the post-Enbridge-construction landscape, the state continues to withhold this information from the public. It seems, only when we reveal the damages publicly ourselves, that the state will confirm to Minnesotans our findings about Enbridge’s post-construction water impacts.
Sinkhole on Enbridge’s Line 3/93 Tar Sands Pipeline Corridor at Walker Brook; Clearwater County. Hat gives a size reference. Several October water temperature measures have shown deep underground water emerging in an unrelenting flow from the land throughout this valley. (credit: Dan Gaither)
As was witnessed in early August for the LaSalle breach, our evidence forced the hand of the DNR to come clean and admit publicly that, on July 11th, Enbridge had reported ongoing “seeps” in the LaSalle Valley. The November 2021 thermal flyover revealed the unrelenting flow from the land just after Enbridge reported the LaSalle breach “fixed”. One measurement on one of the seeps at LaSalle shows flow of over 800,000 gallons per month. We’ve counted at least 6 “seeps”; Enbridge has marked at least 4.
We’ve issued press releases, yet the mainstream press rarely publishes on our work. We continue to be “our own news” as we like to say… the News for the People.
It seems, only when we reveal the damages publicly ourselves, that the state will confirm to Minnesotans our findings about Enbridge’s post-construction water impacts.
What will become of Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes, if these deep water bodies are bled dry?
Please do what you can? Share our work, make calls to agencies and officials, watch the videos to comprehend the impacts on our ecosystems and our people.
Great work by ALL our ALLIES for sharing online and talking to everyone they know… about the horror of Enbridge’s Line 93 (Line 3 Replacement pipeline) Construction. We are NOW the TOP STORY on MPR’s home page!!
Below is my commentary to the WI DNR regarding their proposed Line 5 Relocation project. You can review the project DEIS information and make your own comments through March 18th. (Note: This public input opportunity has been extended through April 15, 2022.)
You are invited to provide written comments on the Draft EIS. Send comments by email to DNROEEACOMMENTS@WI.GOV or by U.S. mail to “Line 5 EIS Comments, DNR (EA/7),” 101 South Webster Street Madison, WI 53707. All written comments must be emailed or postmarked no later than Friday, March 18, 2022.
This project is promoted by Enbridge as honoring the Bad River Band’s request… to remove the Line 5 pipeline from their watershed. However, as is obvious to all but the dullest among us, this removal WAS NOT ACCOMPLISHED with this NEW ROUTE. This pipeline relocation project LEAVES Line 5 within the watershed, thus CONTINUING to risk the waters of Lake Superior, one of the largest remaining freshwater sources for human survival.
What could go wrong? Well, a quick look at the aftermath of the rushed Line 3 project in Minnesota has a few answers… and most of them involve risks of fresh water. Though, yes, the trees that were culled remain the most visible damage, as the scar of this new corridor of destruction is most clear as it passes through forests where thousands of our relatives were culled for a tar sands pipeline to make its way.
And many are, in hindsight, realizing the aftermath of Enbridge’s destruction of our landscape. For example, this recent LTE from Matt Horning, a physician along the new route, which notes this key directive with regard to the Line 5 Re-Route project:
All concerned should request the DNR and ACE safeguard aquifers, monitor private wells at baseline and during pipeline construction and operation, and record and publish the chemical structures and amounts of all drilling materials used and recovered at each HDD site.”
Matt Horning, an Ashland physician who owns property along the L5 re-route3/4/22 LTE
Matt is right. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, in NOT requiring Enbridge to account for all the horizontal directional drilling mud INTO and OUT OF their drill sites, seem to have assured that Minnesotans would not have the access to information on how much of this drill mud was left in our land. It is clear now, as we continue to see brown and orange continuing to upwell in our landscape and show visible evidence of change in our rivers, that Enbridge DID NOT clean up their frac-out messes.
In the end, tribal members and citizen scientists are seemingly the only ones working now to document the tragedy that remains… in hopes we can bring accountability for real clean-up. And, indeed, prevent Enbridge from poisoning the lands and waters of what we now call Wisconsin and Michigan.
Based on what we’re finding thus far, Wisconsin has a lot to concern them if Minnesota is any indication.
On March 1st, a month after this DEIS hearing where I gave the below comments, a group of us went out to sample the water in the Mississippi Headwaters adjacent to the Enbridge New Line 3 (now Line 93) corridor. What we found was troubling. [Analysis is pending.]
Now… to my comments at the WI DNR Draft Environmental Impact Statement hearing on February 2, 2022. [Ironically… also Groundhog Day? Let’s just hope it doesn’t take us as many tries as it took Bill Murray to figure out how to do things right. If it does… Enbridge might win… but humanity loses. Well, let’s be clear… as we’ve watched for decades now: The elder (mostly white) elites will have the best chance at enjoying full lives of comfort and ease… while they eat up the world real quick… leaving Nothing Much for our children and grandchildren with which to build their own lives.]
Bad River: Remove this pipeline from our watershed. Enbridge: This looks about right. Everyone (Everywhere): Uh, nope… still in the Lake Superior watershed, Enbridge.
My name is Jami Gaither.
I live in 1855 Treaty Territory near Upper Rice Lake ten miles north of the Mississippi Headwaters.
Credit to the Wisconsin DNR for creating a DEIS that appears more considerate to the Tribes and the environment than what we saw in Minnesota for Enbridge’s Line 3. Yet, the notice for public input, had a striking miss, not highlighting that all these lands drain into Lake Superior.
I noticed also that 4 of 5 occurrences of the word “risk” in this DEIS happen in the title and paragraph at the top of page 255. That seems a few too few mentions of “risk”.
As an abutter to the project, I witnessed Enbridge’s destruction first hand.
This rushed project included a DNR allowance on June 4th, 2021 for a 10-fold increase in Enbridge’s dewatering permit to 5 billion gallons – during a year of historic drought, no less – and ignoring the voices of the Tribes asking us to honor the rights of Manoomin.
Perhaps one single incident tells you all you need to know about how Enbridge does business, regardless of what they’ve agreed to on paper.
On January 21, 2021, Enbridge contractors punched through a natural artesian aquifer in Clearbrook – their company town – in a willful violation of their Low Risk Construction Permit which allowed digging to only 8′ to 10′. The operators dug an 18′ deep trench and pounded steel pilings into the earth to a depth of 28′, rupturing the rural aquifer.
While unrelenting water flow was reported in the (quote) “independent” (unquote) monitoring reports, the DNR failed to recognize the damage until it was discovered during a lunchtime conversation between monitors and DNR staff. While DNR began communications with Enbridge mid-June, it would be three more months before the public was informed of this disaster. And, in fact, the DNR reports at least two additional aquifer breach investigations, whose locations have yet to be made public.
While Enbridge completed building their pipeline, our aquifer bled out tens of millions of gallons of water as nearby fens suffered.
We asked, over and over, for the agencies to come up and stand in this land, to meet her and know her as we do. It’s clear with all the collateral damage, that Enbridge had no understanding of this land. The Minnesota DNR and MPCA failed to listen to the public testimony on the risks from people who had the needed expertise and who had done their homework. And now everyone is suffering.
I urge you to learn from our mistakes. Protect your land by heeding the voices of those speaking on her behalf.
Stop Enbridge destruction.
Deny this project a life… as you save those on whom your grandchildren will depend.
Miigwech bizindaawiiyeg. Thank you for listening to me.
This past week sure has been a long, fun, crazy week of planning and preparing, learning and loving, understanding and sharing… as we approached the one-year anniversary of the day Enbridge ruptured the Clearbrook Aquifer adjacent to their Terminal Tank Yard.
Hands and hearts working together in the public, as the State continues to ignore, oppress, and gaslight those of us working to protect Sacred Water, Nibi, the Source of all Life.
Ignoring the Public
We know the Agencies are ignoring us as we’ve been working to wake them up to Enbridge’s lies, dangers, and destruction for almost a decade now. And yet, Line 93, Enbridge’s Relocation and Expansion Pipeline, has been built and flowing Tar Sands through my back yard since October. Meanwhile, Enbridge’s reporting to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shows their imports to the Mainline System ARE ON THE DECLINE!
Mainline System Imports vs. Capacity Q1-2004 through Q3-2021 Why is capacity going up… while imports are on the decline!
So WHY did we need to cull our water-holding, oxygen-giving forests? WHY risk our water-filtering wetlands and rivers, if the declining fossil fuel extraction could have been served with EXISTING infrastructure… WITHOUT DISTURBING and DESECRATING the NATURAL INFRASTRUCTURE – on which all life depends?
It seems humans are so intent on their own wishes, they forget that ALL of those wishes are only fulfilled by a robust and healthy biodiverse environment.
Oppressing the Public
While we found solidarity in our work this week, none seemed possible with the Agencies who continue to conceal the damages done by Enbridge across our state, all while not monitoring the ongoing concerns.
The Twin Cities Breach-iversary event Friday ~ planned for the front walk of the DNR Office Building in St. Paul where previous Press Conferences have been carried out in the past ~ found Water Protectors instead pushed to the street!
DNR Security harassed people about parking… in a parking lot that was perhaps 15% full! They would not allow us to be on the sidewalk in front of the DNR building!! Instead, they PUSHED the group to the public sidewalk by busy Lafayette Road!
Why this continued HARASSMENT of Water Protectors by DNR Officials???
I suspect it is because the DNR is telling us that We Are NOT WELCOME and WILL NOT BE HEARD.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources why do you discriminate? What did you base your decision on today—which press conference can stand at our DNR doorway and which one gets pushed to the sidewalk? We are literally trying to work with you to protect our water (train us to be monitors!) but you “greeted” us with security hassles while parking and then told us we could not stand at our state agency. Next you’ll be arresting us for standing peacefully, exercising our first amendment rights. Oh wait! You’ve already done that to me and many others! I used to be so proud of you, DNR, and had dreams of working for you but honestly, I don’t know who you are and what your purpose is anymore. Well, other than to protect the interests of foreign corporations. I know there are good folks that do good work for the DNR but it appears you are being suppressed. Please, I beg of you (I’ve been known to get down on my hands and knees!) it’s time to blow the whistle! There are millions of Minnesotans who will support you! First photo is Stop PolyMet press conference I was honored to attend in 2018. Second photo is from today.”
I commented:
Thank you for speaking to the oppression citizens are seeing by the Minnesota DNR. Most wouldn’t believe our stories of the DNR but we all know we’ve seen a lot of gaslighting of citizens and refusals to meet with us, or even to respond to our inquiries. I imagine there are many employees whose hearts are with us… even if their job restrictions don’t allow them to stand with us in public in front of their employer. We all know the Mark Toso v. MPCA cases could be far more common. We’ve seen the process. We’ve watched the hearings, read the documents, heard the stories, had the quiet conversations. The people will stand for protection of all life. We pray for everyone to join us in this work, whether agency employed or not. Because it’s clear the process is broken. When a foreign multinational can destroy our lands without any way for us to stop them… or even slow them down… let alone hold them accountable… for the unfixable, it’s clear the people take second place to corporations ruining our landscape and poisoning our water, one project at a time.”
At least there was a quick chance for a Photo Op at the DNR Entrance… Photo courtesy of Honor the Earth
Gaslighting the Public
And, yes, they are gaslighting us as well.
On Thursday afternoon, the DNR held their first 2022 Commissioner’s Office Hours event – focused on 2022 Legislative priorities. I asked my questions and, when I finished, Gail Nosek, Communications Director of the DNR said this:
Thank you for the questions and comments, Jami. I do want to make sure to remind people that we understand there is a lot of passion around these issues, but these are meant to be respectful conversations as well.”
Gail Nosek – implying I’d been disrespectful!?!?! …without any evidence provided to back that up?
I’d ask you, WHERE EXACTLY was I disrespectful??? Here’s what I said (including the MANY corrections to their meeting transcript capture below. My actual wordsare in non-italics amidst their often incomplete and stricken inaccuracies. Interesting to note that, for as many interactions as they have with them, the transcriber simply CANNOT SEEM to capture the word “Enbridge”… not ONE single time! 🧐 I highlighted the most interesting of their misquotes…):
I took a look at the DNR proposals for funding and noted that it appears the lion’s share of the focus is on anthropogenic purposes like trails through the wilderness and economic management of selling off our natural resources as opposed toinstead of protecting them and the rich biodiversity on which we all depend. We watched as the DNR has done a miserable job of monitoring the line three project that tore through our state at a breakneck pace resultingresulted in a flurry of environmental damages throughout the new corridor that still await re-meditation. They’veWhile Enbridge has been pumping oil since October, we see just this morning toa report that they finally managed to stop the flow at the Clearbrook Aquifer Breach which they created by willfully violating the DNR’s lo-res Low Risk Construction Permit. It is obvious from the re-meditation order details that theythe DNR failed to manage the monitoringthe process to detect this egregious violation, in part because Enbridge failed to report it for, really clearly, for almost six months. And it appears we need to address the permanentPermitting activity for which we give the DNR authority. I would ask, where were the on-site DNR officials during the obvious permit violations and environmental concerns, why did the egregious violation of the construction permit not result in a stoppage of work until the aquifer was repaired, instead they wereEnbridge was focused on completing their pipeline, allowing the uncontrolled flow of the aquifer throughout the last year, and the DNR allowed them to do so. I would ask, what it is exactly that would’ve called for a stoppage of the project if not violations of the permit. It isIs the agency to fill ustoothless with regard to protecting our natural resources from bad acting applicants willfully desecrating our land? Will the DNR be seeking legislation that allows more authority as we look to reduce the environmental impacts of humans or will you continue to look at what appears to be a techCheck-box approach, allowing our state to be destroyed one project at a time? It seems the agency lacks technical capacity to determine that the engineering data and bridge Enbridge provided did not accurately account for the geology and the topography of our landscape, which was truly the worst place for our a Tar Sands pipeline. IfSo can you could speak to the funding around the permitting work and I just close with this. I It would’ve really to me seemed— it would’ve been a better use for DNR commission Conservation officers andin deploying them along the project route with unannounced monitoring visits to determine what exactly was happening andin our environment instead of what they mostly spent their time doing, which was banging heads of citizens to quell the public outcry to this destructive project. Which we know is not needed as we’ve seen in thisa decrease in imports fortheEnbridge’s mainline system. So please let me know, what are you doing to assure that you have the technical expertise to complete the projects that we need done in a way that doesn’t damage our landscape, but instead protects the things that are important to life.
My comments to the DNR during the January 20th Commissioner’s Office Hours event
While I asked Gail, both publicly and privately for an explanation in the chat, she gave me NO RESPONSE WHATSOEVER. THIS is how the DNR treats ENGAGING CITIZENS. They IGNORE us, OPPRESS us, and/or GASLIGHT us.
Later in the meeting, another citizen asked (again, with corrections to the DNR’s transcript, and a key concern noted early on…):
I actually wrote my comments in the chat. It seems to me that the DNR [Perhaps THIS RIGHT HERE – inaccurate listening and transcribing – is one of the problems???]isn’tIS engaged in promoting recreation by building more and more trails inon public lands. Motorized recreation exasperates climate change in a number of ways by burning fossil fuels, but also by requiring bigger vehicles, trucks, SUVs to pull trailers, that consume fossil fuels at a higher level, to pull these trailers of ATVs and snowmobiles to their recreation destinations. I’m wondering how does the DNR — square their development and it’s engagement in the development of more and more OHV trails with its responsibility trying to mitigate climate change impacts andon all the natural resources… and so forth. I wasI’m still having trouble seeing the DNR doing those, things that are really in conflict with one another. That is my question. Thank you.
Don Pietrick’s OHV (Off-Highway Vehicles) Question at January 2022 DNR Office Hours event
Gail had NO Criticism for Don being disrespectful… though perhaps it’s because she was confused trying to hear him… even though his question had already been posted in the chat… TWICE!?! [Which he mentioned as he began speaking… meaning she could have simply read along, as some of us did to understand Don’s question? Alas, she could not.] But HEY! At least the Chat was PUBLICLY TRANSPARENT!! That’s a change I often requested in complaints to the DNR in 2020 & 2021 regarding their continued apparent unwillingness to have publicly visible comments between attendees at these events. Just giving them clues on how to TRULY Engage the Public!! 😀 [One small change I was able to help bring about… only took a couple years, eh? Though we’ll see if they continue this practice in February? We now know that they can!! So if they don’t continue this bit of transparency, it will be just one more nail in the coffin labeled “The DNR Just Doesn’t Want Public Engagement”?] Here are a couple of the great public chat comments:
Public Chat is NOW AVAILABLE in the DNR Office Hours events!
Perhaps most concerning is, for those hard of hearing or reading the transcript after the fact, the real question Don asked is HIDDEN by DNR’s verbiage. Their transcript 1) implied DNR is NOT making more trails, 2) minimized the impacts Don shared about trailering and increased fossil fuel use, and finally 3) obfuscated Don’s main focus of SQUARING the DNR’s heavy OHV focus with their proposed mission of mitigating climate change. Though, reading this sentence – as DNR captured it – may be telling: “I’m wondering how does the DNR — trying to mitigate climate change impacts and all the natural resources.” Yeah, they do seem, Don, to be “mitigating… ALL the natural resources” …and by that, I mean all these appropriate synonyms: reducing, diminishing, weakening, and, most often… deadening our natural resources.
MinnPost had a good piece on these concerns Friday as well, noting: “Sustainable environmental policy needs more holistic oversight and that is limited in this state.”
Peter closes with a strong argument and a few great suggestions:
The state should have a high-level group for strategic thinking on sustainable environmental policy options, but then decisions on priorities need to be refined by preferences elicited across all the important stakeholders including the tribal nations. There will undoubtedly be urgency and political pressures to act as more funds flow so it will be impractical to ask everybody about options all the time. Community leaders will be important. Increasingly, though, we should involve the power of the internet, big data and crowdsourcing in informing decisions. To deliver for the economy, environment and people taking account of the present and future generations needs a holistic approach. Balancing the inevitable trade-offs in a way that is transparent and sensitive to public preferences is the challenge. The state has a way to go in delivering on this.
I’d agree on the Minnesota Agencies’ LONG WAY TO GO in Transparency, for sure… as well as their inability to be sensitive to public preferences… though I might take friendly disagreement with his earlier statement on technical expertise. While technical experts may exist in our agencies, it seems they lack the capacity to piece through the misinformation and deceptions presented by Engineers representing Applicants. This might be no more clear than in the Enbridge Aquifer Breach at Clearbrook.
The DNR was unable to detect the inaccurate information presented in applications by Enbridge’s engineers, which drove them to allow Enbridge a “Low Risk Construction Permit” at this location. A huge mistake as the site of the breached aquifer is quite close to two Calcarious Fens, which are specially protected entities. It’s hard to comprehend, as the state geologists and hydrologists should surely have been able to understand that this area – an old washout of a long ago river – would be full of irregular geology that might cause problems in trenching?
OUR experts could see the issues. And we testified about the problems of putting a new tar sands pipeline through this area of our state, giving proposed alternative routes, and begging for agency officials to COME SEE THIS LAND with their OWN EYES… all to no avail. And, in the end, the DNR obviously lacked the necessary technical resources to properly and/or completely READ THE MONITORING REPORTS and determine that something was amiss and more urgent attention was clearly needed at the work site… for over 5 months!
Perhaps Gail’s comment on my being “disrespectful” was because she didn’t like the FACTS that I was disclosing about the DNR? 🧐
All this said, it does seem the tide is turning.
The people continue to speak… even when they are PUSHED from the Public Right-of-Way.
We continue to make valid points and ask concerning questions that the Agencies CONTINUE TO IGNORE and NOT ANSWER.
Yet we persist. Even with all the gaslighting techniques employed by the DNR.
It’s time for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to FOLLOW THIS LEAD, writing an amicus brief to all Law Enforcement Agencies that banged heads for Enbridge along the corridor – arresting PEACEFUL CITIZENS and Tribal Members ON THEIR OWN LAND – as Jaci mentioned at the start of this blog. He must insist that they DROP THE CHARGES!
The counties were reimbursed by Enbridge to the tune of almost $5M – with more filings expected so likely to be higher still? – for their LE officers “trouble” in harassing citizens on Enbridge’s behalf. But Enbridge’s escrow account manager refuses to FINANCE the prosecutions… as they are outside the allowed reimbursables. Just another way Enbridge creates more costs and cleanup for local people as it leaves their environment and communities in disarray.
It is ridiculous to me that Water Protectors, standing for us all, face criminal charges and fines geared to disable them in major ways… while the real criminal, Enbridge, gets to continue hiding it’s damages, paying pittances of fines, and facing no criminal charges for poisoning our air, land, and water.
Still, we have pending suits remaining against the project. (Why is Biden’s Court taking OH SO LONG to rule on filings made 12/24/20 and 1/24/21? And WHY did they refuse to even HEAR the case where Tribes asked for an injunction on the Line 3 project?) Seems so many agencies, courts, and officials have colluded to keep this project from stopping… while ignoring the obvious science, climate chaos, and voices speaking in opposition.
To close, here’s a little Fun Stuff from the Clearbrook Breach-iversary event! It seems perhaps Enbridge is ready to get involved with us!?!? 🧐
Retired at 45 