With Trans-Pecos Pipeline done, protests dwindle

Organizers of West Texas pipeline protests said they are closing down the largest of the camps set up for environmental activists now that the Trans-Pecos Pipeline is complete.

"Yeah, we're in transition mode," said Frankie Orona, executive director of the San Antonio-based Society of Native Nations and a camp leader. "The pipeline is pretty much in the ground."

The Trans-Pecos received federal approval Thursday to pipe gas across the Mexican border. The 148-mile line, which runs from Fort Stockton to the border, is "operationally ready for service," a spokeswoman said.

The West Texas camp, about 40 miles south of Marfa and 25 miles north of the border, grew out of similar larger protests against U.S. pipelines. Thousands of activists traveled last year to ad-hoc camps set up in North Dakota, north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, and blocked a last link of the 1,200-mile Dakota Access Pipeline developed by Energy Transfer Partners of Dallas.

Late last year, the Obama administration announced it would not approve an easement under the Missouri River, and directed the Army Corps of Engineers to look at alternate routes. President Donald Trump, however, reversed that order and allowed the project to go forward. The pipeline is now complete.

Some of the Dakota Access protesters headed south to demonstrate against the Trans-Pecos, also built by Energy Transfer.

Activists completed 13 "direct actions" - civil disobedience aimed at slowing construction in West Texas. Many involved protesters chaining or locking themselves to heavy machinery in the early morning, forcing the company to wait for police before starting work.

Grinder had to be used

The West Texas camp, called Two Rivers, hasn't run a protest in weeks. The most recent arrest was almost three weeks ago, the Presidio County Sheriff's Office said. Deputies found 21-year-old Greeley, Colo., resident Anna Joy Kruger, her arms wrapped around an excavator and then affixed together with a homemade cast of PVC pipe, chicken wire, concrete, tar and duct tape - far harder and more time-consuming to remove than the chains protesters used earlier in the year. Deputies had to get a grinder to cut through the concrete and metal. They arrested her on suspicion of trespassing, a misdemeanor, and criminal mischief, a felony.

Less than 10 protesters are now left at Two Rivers, a mix of tents, teepees and at least one yurt on private land near Big Bend Ranch State Park. Orona said he'll close it in the next few weeks and begin looking for a new target.

Other activists have gathered near West Texas's Balmorhea State Park, home to the famous spring-fed swimming pool, to protest hydraulic fracturing operations conducted by Houston-based Apache Corp. Apache declined to comment.

In addition, Orona said, environmental activists are setting their sights on Calgary-based Enbridge's Valley Crossing Pipeline, set to run from near Corpus Christi to the southern tip of Texas. That pipeline is still setting its course, and activists would have a much better ability to affect the outcome, Orona said.

Movement dying down? 

But Orona said he is worried about the future of such activism after Trump's approval not only of Dakota Access, but also TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL, which the Obama administration had also blocked.

"I think the movement's dying down a lot throughout the country," Orona said. "I think people are discouraged."

In the meantime, campers at Two Rivers are looking for some help. They need gas money to cover their coming move.