\u201cThey got a lot of money, they got a lot of equipment, but we got a lot of people,\u201d said Anishinaabe water protector Winona LaDuke at an event last week with actor and activist Jane Fonda, which took place in front of the flowing Crow Wing River, not far from where Enbridge seeks to drill under its shores. \u201cSpring is coming. Let\u2019s be outdoorsy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enbridge\u2019s Line 3 project began construction four months ago. It was designed to replace a decaying pipeline of the same name; however, a large\u00a0portion of its 338-mile Minnesota section, which makes up most of the U.S. route, plows through new land and waters. The project would double Line 3\u2019s capacity for carrying tar sands oil, one of the most carbon-intensive fossil fuels in the world, at a moment when a rapid shift away from fossil fuels has become critical to address the climate crisis.<\/p>\n
The delicate waterway ecosystems through which the pipeline passes have become the central organizing point of the anti-pipeline, or water protector, movement. Hundreds of rivers, streams, and wetlands face the specter of a tar sands leak after the replacement Line 3 begins operating. And the particularly intensive form of drilling required to tunnel the pipeline under rivers holds its own set of risks during construction.<\/p>\n
Those same waters are central to the Anishinaabe people\u2019s identity, and Anishinaabe women have led opposition to the Line 3 project. Over the past year, women and nonbinary people have organized small camps near planned construction sites. In recent weeks, they\u2019ve led a steady schedule of gatherings and ceremonies at the edges of rivers, with some organizing more obstructive protests, known as direct actions, aimed at slowing pipeline construction. With spring on the horizon, pipeline opponents are poised to take even more obstinate stands to block construction at the river crossings.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement agencies, with Enbridge\u2019s support, are also preparing for the time when the rivers open up. Documents obtained by The Intercept confirm that local sheriff\u2019s offices have for months been practicing for direct actions focused on the Mississippi River.<\/p>\n
![\"LRF_1675-honor-the-earth\"](\"https:\/\/prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org\/wp-uploads\/sites\/1\/2021\/03\/LRF_1675-honor-the-earth.jpg\")
\nWinona LaDuke, center, and Tara Houska, left, are seen at a demonstration against the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline in Park Rapids, Minn., on March 15, 2021.<\/p>\n
\nPhoto: Courtesy of Honor the Earth<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cOperation River Crossing\u201d<\/h3>\n
This past\u00a0September, members of the Northern Lights Task Force, a coalition of state and local law enforcement and public safety agencies set up to respond to pipeline resistance, gathered for the 12-hour training at Camp Ripley, a Minnesota National Guard training center on the Mississippi River south of the pipeline route. The exercise was titled \u201cOperation River Crossing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In a manual for exercise participants, obtained by The Intercept through a public information request, officials from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Minnesota State Patrol provide hints about what they fear will happen \u2014 and how they intend to respond.<\/p>\n Operation River Crossing was designed for law enforcement trainees from along the pipeline route to practice their response to a \u201ccivil unrest situation with threats to public safety including criminal damage to property, obstruction of transportation, assaults, threats to bystanders, and rioting.\u201d Officers would confront a range of people posing as pipeline opponents. Some would be quietly holding signs. \u201cOthers are blocking the roadway and access to the work area and refusing orders to disperse. A small group of protesters has started threatening pipeline workers and law enforcement officers and lobbing balloons filled with urine and deer repellent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n In the fictionalized scenario, law enforcement officers have access to various headquarters for cross-county coordination. \u201cTwo Regional Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) have already been established: Northwest EOC near Crookston and Northeast EOC near Duluth,\u201d the planning document says. A hypothetical state-level operation center had also been \u201cpartially activated\u201d at Camp Ripley.<\/p>\n The manual also explains that fictive officers have been monitoring social media and using it to determine their strategies. \u201cPublic safety officials became aware of a spike in social media messaging activity regarding planned protests\u201d at a second Mississippi crossing site in Aitkin County, downstream from the headwaters. \u201cMultiple groups indicate they will travel to the counties along the route to protest the project,\u201d the scenario says. \u201cOne of these groups is associated with past criminal activities during protests.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to all these hypothetical details, the police would practice coordinated crowd-control tactics and methods of cutting away materials used to attach pipeline opponents to infrastructure. They would simulate the use of chemical munitions, while observers watched the training on bleachers.<\/p>\n Six months later, law enforcement agencies have put some of the planned exercises into real-world action. As the scenario foreshadowed, a Northeast Emergency Operations Center was activated November 30, shortly after the pipeline\u2019s approval, according to Northern Lights Task Force meeting notes obtained by The Intercept. Multiple county sheriff\u2019s offices now have their own extrication or cutting teams trained\u00a0and\u00a0ready to use equipment for cutting water protectors away from infrastructure. Some of that equipment has been paid for by Enbridge itself.<\/p>\n An escrow account set up by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and funded by Enbridge, primarily to cover the costs of policing pipeline resistance, has distributed more than $500,000 to law enforcement agencies as of March 15. The account is not meant to be used for equipment, though, unless it\u2019s personal protective equipment. The state-appointed account manager has rejected law enforcement requests for reimbursement of cutting tools. But there are ways around that. In Hubbard County, for example, Enbridge donated<\/a> cutting tools separately from the escrow account.<\/p>\n The escrow account manager also rejected requests that had framed chemical munitions as \u201cpersonal protective equipment.\u201d Whether or not they\u2019ve been reimbursed, law enforcement agencies have new stock available. No use of chemical munitions has been reported so far. Instead, water protectors say that they have seen increased traffic stops, aerial surveillance, and police officers following pipeline opponents in cars.<\/p>\n