Two pipeline protesters arrested at Iowa Utilities Board
Two people protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline were arrested Wednesday in Des Moines after demanding a meeting at the Iowa Utilities Board.
Jessica Reznicek, who was arrested on a trespassing charge, had been fasting for 10 days with Travis O'Brennan, urging the board to revoke permits for construction on the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Iowa. With their supporters, Reznicek and O'Brennan have stayed outside the utilities board building on the Iowa State Capitol grounds during their fast.
Reznicek, O'Brennan and their supporters entered the building about 9 a.m. Wednesday and demanded a meeting with Geri Huser, chairwoman of the Iowa Utilities Board. They had previously sent a letter requesting the meeting but received no response, fellow protesters said.
Iowa State Patrol Capt. Mark Logsdon said the group was "very loud," and he said Reznicek refused to listen to officers.
"They can be in here if they're not disruptive," he added.
As officers took Reznicek, 35, of Des Moines into a squad car in handcuffs, several fellow protesters were yelling "No! No!" and saying that Reznicek had a right to be in the Iowa Utilities Board building.
Protesters with signs including the phrases "Water is Life" and "#NoDAPL" stayed outside the building and in its lobby immediately after Reznicek's arrest.
"We want to save the water here, and we want to protect the water," O'Brennan told reporters. "We really believe in this, and we just want this to stop."
O'Brennan, 29, of Brunswick, Maine, was later arrested around 2:18 p.m.
In a Facebook Live video by Mississippi Stand, a group that's protesting the pipeline, O'Brennan is seen sitting in front of the Iowa Utilities Board reception area, not allowing people to come through the doors.
"This is my time to make my voice heard," O'Brennan says to two Iowa State Patrol officers in the video. "I would like people watching just to make sure that our government is responding to our interests and not the interests of corporations."
The officers warn O'Brennan that if he continues to sit in front of the doors and disrupt business, he will be arrested.
When a person tries to enter the reception area, the troopers arrest him as protesters cheer: "We love you, water protectors."
O'Brennan is charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. He is currently in Polk County Jail with a $600 bond.
Julie Brown, a pipeline activist from Des Moines, said O'Brennan and Reznicek will continue to fast while in jail. Brown said once they are released, they will continue their protest at the Iowa Utilities Board either inside or outside.
"These people are appointed to serve the public and they’ve been standing outside starving," Brown said. "I can’t imagine there’s anything more important than speaking with these people sitting outside and risking their lives."
In response to the protests, Don Tormey, spokesman for the Iowa Utilities Board said in a statement: "Board staff met with the protesters this morning, received their questions and noted that we would provide a response to them before (close of business Wednesday)."
The $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline will cross Iowa to transport oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields to Patoka, Ill. Many of the protesters at the Iowa Utilities Board on Wednesday, including Reznicek and O'Brennan, were with Mississippi Stand, a group that has an encampment of protesters in southeast Iowa at the Dakota Access construction site crossing the Mississippi River.
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Dozens of pipeline protesters have been arrested in recent months near the Mississippi Stand camp and at a pipeline construction site in Boone. But Reznicek is the first to be arrested on Iowa State Capitol grounds, Logsdon said.
Opponents of the oil pipeline say it will negatively affect the quality of drinking water along the pipeline route, including water from the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, among other environmental impacts.
A massive encampment of pipeline protesters at Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota has drawn supporters and media attention from across the county. The pipeline route crosses the Indian reservation, and members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have said the project is endangering sacred sites, as well as compromising the tribe's water supply.
Officials with pipeline builder Dakota Access previously told the Register that the company takes construction guidelines and agreements "very seriously."
The protesters maintained their message Wednesday morning after Reznicek's arrest.
Some of them peacefully chanted in the building's lobby: "People gonna rise like the waters. We're gonna shut this pipeline down."