Activists Boat onto Sludge Pond; Confront Gov. Tomblin on Dangers of Coal Sludge

from RAMPS

Charleston, W.Va. – This morning at 7:30 a.m. two activists paddled out onto the 2.8 billion gallon Shumate slurry impoundment in Raleigh County with banners reading, “Slurry Poisons Appalachia” and “Gov. Tomblin, Put Health Over Profit.”  Later this morning, one activist locked himself to a barrel of black water in front of Gov. Tomblin’s mansion in a Tyvek suit reading “Locked to Dirty Water”.   Activists are calling attention to the failure of the state government to protect its citizens from the abuses of the coal industry and the threats posed by coal slurry disposal.

Cross Timbers Earth First! Shuts Down KXL Construction Site

Cross Posted from Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance

UPDATE: 9:16am- Holly and Bailey have been extracted and are now in police custody. Show Holly and Bailey some love by donating to our bail fund.

UPDATE: 8:42am-Holly and Bailey are still locked down, despite dangerous attempts to remove them by the Houghes Co Sheriffs and the Holdenville Fire Department. Show Holly and Bailey some love by Donating to our bail fund.

UPDATE: 8:30am-A Deputy from the Hughes Co Sheriffs department is full-force swinging a sledgehammer at one of Holly and Bailey’s lockdown devices. This is VERY dangerous. They are also now using a Jack Hammer. Call the Hughes Co Sheriffs and tell them this behavior is unacceptable. Phone Number: (405) 379-2203

UPDATE: 8:03am: The Fire Department is shielding their activities by holding up a tarp to block the view.

                       Call the Holdenville Fire Department and tell them their job is not to hurt people!

Phone Number: (405) 379-2413

UPDATE: 8:01am-Holdenville, OK Fire Department is on scene and wielding axes.

UPDATE: 7:52am-Two Hughes Co. Sheriffs vehicles have arrived on scene

UPDATE: 7:00am-Work trucks arrive and then leave

Hughes County, OK, May 14th, 7 am

Early this morning Bailey and Holly, both of whom are local Oklahomans and with Cross Timbers Earth First!ers, walked onto an Keystone XL active construction site in Hughes County, Oklahoma and locked themselves to concrete filled barrels obstructing the use of heavy machinery used in the construction of the pipeline.

Bailey and Holly are part of Cross Timbers Earth First! , a regional chapter of the Earth First! movement, which has been carrying out ecological direct actions for over 30 years.  According to its members, Cross Timbers Earth First! also endorses Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, a growing coalition of groups and individuals dedicated to stopping the expansion of tar sands infrastructure throughout the Great Plains.

67 Year Old Willits Man Locks Down To Machinery, Stops Work

Cross Posted From Save Little Lake Valley

Bob Chevalier, a 67 year old Willits resident, locked himself to an excavator this morning and stopped Caltrans work. He did this to protest and bring attention the Army Corps of Engineers’ (ACE) failure to hold Caltrans accountable to the conditions ACE set forth for Caltrans to begin work. Bob and a 73 year old woman were subsequently arrested by the California Highway Patrol and taken to jail in Ukiah.

Mr. Chevalier took action this morning so that you will know the following:

In a February 2013 letter, ACE granted an unusual exemption and conditional approval for Caltrans to begin construction activities. One of the conditions for beginning construction was that Caltrans could provide assurance that they would receive full funding for their mitigation plan at the May 7th CTC meeting. At that meeting last week, Caltrans received less than the full amount they need to carry out their mitigation plan. Mr. Chevalier and SOLLV are calling on the Corps to maintain their integrity and hold Caltrans accountable for the success of the mitigation process.

Fourth Generation Oklahoman, Founder of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House, Locks Himself to KXL Construction Equipment

Cross Posted From Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance
Follow this developing story at GPTSR’s website

Wewoka Oklahoma-Monday, May 13th, 7 am

Early this morning Bob Waldrop, 60,
fourth generation Oklahoman and prominent Oklahoma City community member
walked onto an active construction site for the Keystone XL pipeline in Seminole County and
locked himself to an Excavator, a piece of heavy machinery used in the
construction of the pipeline. Waldrop took a stand today in defense of the
land and the human and non-humans that depend upon it to survive.

Waldrop, as a founding member of the Oscar Romero Catholic Workers House,
is a part of Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, a growing coalition of
groups and individuals dedicated to stopping the expansion of Tar Sands
infrastructure throughout the Great Plains. His action follows an
escalating number of work-stopping actions, of which there were five in
April alone, in Oklahoma.

“Lockdown”: Tar Sands Blockade vs. Keystone XL Pipeline (Video)

 

From YouTube: “LOCKDOWN,” is a ten minute documentary by Mutual Aid Media on the Tar Sands Blockade–a group of activists and landowners in Texas who have built a campaign to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. This short doc follows activists as they plan an action camp, lead workshops, and execute a lockdown. We hope that this piece can be used to help promote direct action as well as gain support for Tar Sands Resistance campaigns.

To get involved visit: tarsandsblockade.org , gptarsandsresistance.org , nokxl.org
For more information about Mutual Aid Media, please visit our website at: mutualaidmedia.com

Tar Sands Blockade Releases Photos of Flawed Welds on Keystone XL Pipeline

Photo taken from inside a portion of the Keystone XL pipeline, showing visible holes in the welding!

Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel, The Woodlands, TX – 9 am Thursday, January 31st, TransCanada executive Tom Hamilton’s presentation of a Keystone XL case study at the Pipe Tech Americas 2013 conference was interrupted when a blockader chained himself to audio equipment and delivered a speech to the nearly 300 attendees. Hamilton, the Manager of  Quality and Compliance for the Keystone Pipeline, was supposed to give a forty-minute talk about safety and regulations related to the southern portion of the KXL pipeline. Instead, Tar Sands Blockade organizer Ramsey Sprague gave an impassioned rebuttal highlighting TransCanada’s poor safety record.

As you can see in the video posted below, for several minutes before security dismantled the audio equipment and arrested him Sprague described shoddy welding practices and dangerous corner-cutting throughout TransCanada’s operations exposed by whistleblowers like Evan Vokes, a metallurgic engineer who came forward in May 2012, leading to an investigation by Canada’s National Energy Board. Sprague reminded attendees that TransCanada’s first Keystone pipeline has already leaked over 30 times and that other industry leaders such as Enbridge are similarly negligent, with over 800 spills since 1999. He derided TransCanada for routing the KXL pipeline through ecologically sensitive areas and through communities like the one in Douglass, TX, where construction crews are actively laying pipe within sight of the Douglass public school.