Above Photo: Fb/ ATXEJ – Austin Environmental Justice Team
Sharing on behalf of Big Bend Defense Coalition.
Earlier today 3 #TxWaterProtectors were arrested after shutting down construction of Energy Transfer Partners’ Trans-Pecos Pipeline in West Texas. Power and love to these brave defenders of the land. A’ho!
#NoTPPL #NoCTPL #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 06, 2016
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Water Protectors Arrested in West Texas After Blocking Construction of Energy Transfer Partners’ Trans-Pecos Pipeline
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ALPINE, TEXAS – A mourning vigil at 4 AM Tuesday organized by the Big Bend Defense Coalition (BBDC) in front of Energy Transfer Partners’ Pumpco/Trans-Pecos Pipeline laydown yard in Alpine, Texas netted three arrests. Energy Transfer Partners is constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.
The three water protectors arrested are Lori Glover, mother of four and founder of the BBDC; Arajoe Battista, a former oil field worker; and Roger Siglin, a veteran, were jailed on unknown charges by the Brewster County Sheriff’s office.
“The fight in Standing Rock extends down here to Texas. The Black Snake is not dead. It is alive and well in the Big Bend. The Trans-Pecos Pipeline near Big Bend and the Comanche Trail Pipeline near El Paso – both projects of Kelcy Warren’s Energy Transfer Partners – threaten pristine lands and the sacred Rio Grande River.
Just as there was no Environmental Impact Study done at Lake Oahe in North Dakota for DAPL, we too in the Big Bend demand the TPPL be halted until a thorough EIS is conducted on the entire length of TPPL to protect the Rio Grande, Cibolo Creek, Alamito Creek, and Leoncita Springs watersheds. We must protect our water, challenge corporate greed, and come to our senses on the truth of fossil fuels and climate change,” said Glover, chained to the main gate.
According to local news source, The Van Horn Advocate:
The TPPL will cut a 143 mile-swath through the last vestige of wilderness in Texas desecrating as many as one ancient Native American site per square mile of its path. The Trap Springs archeological site, a very recent and significant find is in imminent danger of being bulldozed despite evidence of at least 5,000 years of occupation and a pending nomination as a State Archeological Landmark.
Eighty-year-old Roger Siglin, a former National Park administrator and long-time Alpine resident shook his head before his arrest and remarked, “I’ve been in the military and I’ve worked in law enforcement. I might as well try it from the other side if that’s the only way to protect our water.”
Video of lockdown and arrests:
https://www.facebook.com/david.keller.…/…/10207544285746746/
A bail fund and call to action can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/no-tppl-in-the-rio-grande
In North Dakota the Standing Rock Water Protectors have been maced, attacked by dogs, and shot at with “safe bullets” simply because they believe they have the right to protect their water, the Missouri River, from the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) for future generations; they have the right to protect their sacred burial grounds; they have a right as citizens of the United States to the protections of Democracy.
We of the Big Bend also have the right to define our community and say no to fossil-fuel expansion, destruction of our environment and our property rights, and the risks of 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of highly flammable, explosive, toxic gas pumping through unregulated pipelines, snaking past our homes, through our creeks and the Rio Grande.
The Big Bend is a beautiful, wide-open, desert region of West Texas where the people of its small communities have chosen peace and natural beauty over money. This same region is part of one of the most biodiverse, pristine desert regions of the world–the Chihuahuan Desert and has remained untouched by big industry until now. At it’s southern border is the famous Rio Grande River, now threatened by the looming injection of the 42″ Trans Pecos Pipeline (TPPL) under its riverbed to deliver Fracked natural gas to Mexico for foreign export profit.
TPPL will tunnel under the Rio Grande only 50 to 75 feet above an aquifer that supplies water to the nearby town of Presidio. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), despite pleas from Big Bend National Park, deemed it unnecessary to do an Environmental Impact Study to safely regulate this pipeline to protect endangered species and the drinking water of Presidio. FERC has also unconscionably ignored close to a 1000 public comment requests and numerous intervenor appeals to evaluate the environmental impacts of the entire 148 miles of the TPPL.
On Sunday November 20th in Marfa, TX, Defend Big Bend, the Society of Native Nations, the Big Bend Defense Coalition, and local allies marched 2 miles from the Marfa Lights Viewing Center to an ETP Trans Pecos Pipeline Construction site. Tensions rose and interactions with the local police escalated when the Water Protectors crossed the fence line onto the ETP easement to pray and dance for healing of the sacred land. The Sheriff and Society of Native Nations leaders gathered and circled in discussion to de-escalate the situation and come to a better understanding.
https://www.facebook.com/vandmproductions/
Our next action to protect the Big Bend is to construct a Winter Camp for Water Protectors from Standing Rock and across the nation. Standing Rock is asking many of their Water Protectors to set up camps to slow Energy Transfer Partners in other areas of the country before the harsh winter sets in. We want to welcome all those willing to come and help us protect our nation against corporate greed unfettered.
Please help us to use this crucial moment in American history to redefine, reshape, and reinforce democracy, human rights, and environmental health.
Together we CAN make a DIFFERENCE!
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