I am convinced that pipeline safety regulators must already know this is unsafe.
I am also convinced that it's all of our collective responsibility to remind pipeline safety regulators we know about this situation. These four pipelines need to be shutdown until the encampment ends and some deal has been reached between Enbridge and the tribe, or until the pipelines are rerouted through lands where they have easements and rights-of-way with the landowners on the new route.
Other videos by the same youtube poster show exposed pipelines on this same pipeline route that extreme sports enthusiasts have been "mudding" over in 4 wheel drive trucks and ATVs. So digging into the frozen earth using fire and giant blowtorches is not the most dangerous thing happening on these unsafe pipelines.
Does anyone know what really going on within the MN Office of Pipeline Safety or the US Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration? Fill us in by posting a comment below if you have heard anything from them on this crisis.
I am just hoping the Enbridge folks have worked out something with a Red Lake Tribal 1-call number so someone can call before they dig to put in the pool.