Cherita #5

“Line 5” has corroded

snake oil flows
through aged pipelines

it slithers 12 miles
through Native land
pushing fossilized lies

~

Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me

Posted in #noACP, #noDAPL, poetry & cherita. Bookmark the permalink.

#liftLine5

for more information:

http://www.channel3000.com/madison-magazine/city-life/the-next-big-pipeline-protest/578582133

29 thoughts on “Cherita #5

  1. Wonderfully written but alarming. When it travels over aged tracks in single walled tanker cars is what scares me the most. Through sleepy towns in the middle of the night often only feet away from homes and businesses.

    1. Thank you so much! Enbridge wants to “fix” four “anomalies” in the line on leased reservation land, but the lines are 15 or more years past their intended lives already. Parts of it travel through fragile wetlands. It is alarming…

  2. And disturbing. How long did those engineers study to be able to describe potentially serious issues with an aged pipeline as “anomalies”? Were there “anomalies” with the Deepwater Horizon platform? Challenger? Sadly the list goes on.

    1. It is. We have made huge strides in green tech and renewable energy, especially in the area of solar energy storage. Investment in those areas is a good solution. Recognition of original Native Treaty land rights is another. We have a long way to go.

  3. Pipes will breach and have breached. For people to say otherwise is false. Did you know a fracking engineer is on record saying the seals around the fracking pipe fail “immediately” 1 out of 20 times.

    1. I didn’t know that, but there have been plenty of “fails”. We must focus on renewable energy and honor Native treaty lands. Thanks, Keith!

      1. Absolutely. They don’t tend to run pipes near nice neighborhoods. Disenfranchised folks are easier to pick on.

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