Trans Mountain pipeline protesters to gather on Columbia River Monday
Posted September 1, 2019 11:18 pm.
Last Updated September 1, 2019 11:21 pm.
VANCOUVER, WA (NEWS 1130) – By now, we’re used to seeing Trans Mountain pipeline protesters in places like Burnaby Mountain or the Westridge Marine Terminal.
On Monday, demonstrators will be congregating at a port on the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington – a place they say pipeline parts are being shipped to, on their way to the contentious project in Canada.
“We will have multiple boats on the water. We highlighted on Friday that this vessel was here. We have hung a number of banners around the area to expose this to local media,” says protester Jack Issent.
The protesters believe the pipeline parts are being shipped to the US in order to avoid attracting attention, and more protests, in BC.
Issent says the pieces are being manufactured in India and put on large tankers. He says the ships carry between 1,700 to 2,000 pipes and that they’ve been coming since January. He contends they are being offloaded on the Columbia where they are then put on trucks to be stored. From there, he says, they are put on trains destined for BC.
“We are going to be having voices from different communities up and down the route of this rail – where they load it off the ships and put it on rail.”
Issent says people in Washington State are putting pressure on Governor Jay Inslee to stop cooperating with the project.
“This government is against this pipeline being built in general, and yet he hasn’t spoken out against the material to build it going through his state. So we’re hoping this will help put some pressure on him.”
Issent says there’s growing opposition to the pipeline in the US over fears what a tanker spill would mean for killer whales and waterfront communities.
