56-year-old Gwen Ingram of Luther, Okla. is arrested after locking herself to machinery being used to construct the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, April 16, 2013
From Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance:
Police have arrested three blockaders after they delayed Keystone XL construction for an entire morning in Bryan County, Oklahoma. All three arrested are lifelong Oklahomans; Gwen Ingram of Luther, Okla., 56, had locked herself to heavy machinery, Eric Whelan, 26, who grew up in McLoud, Okla., was on a tower 40 feet off the ground in the middle of the KXL construction site, and Stefan Warner, a youth paster who had previously shut down another KXL construction site on February 11th. …
Today’s event marks the fourth act of civil disobedience by Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance and comes in the wake of the disastrous tar sands pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas. For the last three weeks, over 300,000 gallons of tar sands diluted bitumen have spilled into a residential neighborhood and local waterways.
“Keystone XL sounded like a bad idea from the beginning,” explained Whelan. “The Mayflower spill proves that we shouldn’t be trusting these multi-national corporations, like Exxon or TransCanada, because every spill further exposes their criminal incompetence. Now, TransCanada wants to build a toxic pipeline through the center of the country.
“I’m taking action to prevent a tragedy like that from happening in Oklahoma.”
The tar sands’ corrosive nature makes pipelines more prone to leaks than transporting crude oil, as evidenced by the Exxon’s Pegasus pipeline burst in Mayflower, Ark.
When spills inevitably do occur, the heavier diluted bitumen sinks in water and into the water table. Keystone XL’s proposed route cuts through the heartland of North America, crossing the Arbuckle Simpson and Edwards Trinity Aquifer in Oklahoma.
“The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would carry the dirtiest fuel on the planet from Canada to America’s Gulf Coast’s refineries and ports, and then overseas for export,” said Gwen Ingram, before locking herself to TransCanada’s heavy machinery.
“I simply won’t allow this pipeline to cross our precious rivers; the North and South Canadian, The Red River, The Cimmaron and threaten our drinking water.”