Environmental protesters chained themselves to horizontal directional drilling machinery last Monday in opposition to Northwest Pipeline’s construction of the Grays Harbor Lateral in Washington state, law enforcement authorities and pipeline officials said.

Three activists, who were bound to the drilling equipment owned by a contractor for the Williams pipeline, were arrested for investigation of second-degree trespassing and obstruction of justice; two were charged with resisting arrest and trespassing; and four others — not chained to the machinery — were arrested solely on trespassing charges, said Captain Dan Kimball of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

“We had to run and tackle a couple of them,” he told NGI. All of the charges were misdemeanors and did not carry high bail, Kimball told NGI.

The protesters, about 40 in all, were students from Evergreen State College near Olympia, WA, and belonged to a group calling itself the South Sound Coalition, said Northwest spokeswoman Beverly Chipman. They gathered at the site of the proposed line near Tumwater, WA, early last Monday to block work on the lateral, which they said would affect the ecosystem of the nearby Black River.

The 49-mile, 20-inch diameter Grays Harbor lateral would run under the Black River in Thurston County and travel west to supply up to 162 MMcf/d of natural gas to a 650 MW generation plant being developed by Duke Energy near Elma, WA. Construction on the $75.2 million lateral, which began in June, is expected to be completed in September. The line is targeted to begin service by Nov. 1.

In addition to the protesters, area landowners are concerned about the lateral causing damage to the river. Chipman noted that 70% of the lateral would be constructed in existing right of way to minimize the effects on the environment. FERC issued a certificate for the Grays Harbor Lateral in late April, after giving it environmental clearance.

Although the environmental activists did slow down activity at the pipeline site, Chipman said Northwest intends to meet the in-service date for the lateral. “It was a peaceful demonstration…This was not a real hostile kind of situation,” she told NGI. However, “we fully expect that they will be back.”

Kimball agreed that there’s a “good chance that they’ll be back,” and said that his office has advised Northwest of the “need to protect their equipment” and of the possibility of vandalism.

The demonstration against the pipeline was not a surprise to Northwest. Chipman said Northwest had met with coalition members previously to discuss their concerns, and also had informed area law enforcement officials that there might be “possible trouble” at the site.

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