Dozens of climate justice advocates in Massachusetts occupied international pipeline company Enbridge’s office in the city of Waltham on Tuesday in solidarity with Indigenous water protectors protesting the company’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline in Minnesota.

Activists also demanded Enbridge shut down the natural gas compressor station in Weymouth, Mass., which has had six system failures over the last year, shutting down and triggering releases of natural gas into the air without warning.

Another Enbridge project in Massachusetts, the West Roxbury Lateral natural gas pipeline in Boston, does not have a safety plan that addresses its close proximity to an active blasting quarry.

The protest ended Wednesday afternoon when the remaining three protesters were arrested by Waltham police officers. Thirteen of the protesters stayed overnight Tuesday, waiting just under 24 hours for Enbridge officials to speak with them before they left Wednesday morning.

“Many of the people affected by these Enbridge projects have taken all steps available to them via their state’s permitting process and have found that there is no urgency to protect public safety and enforce existing environmental laws,” Andrea Honoré, a climate justice advocate in Massachusetts, said in a Twitter message to NetZero Insider. “So that’s how you end up on the floor of an Enbridge office.”

The protest started with a brass band circling the floor of the lobby alongside the climate justice activists. Others traveled to the third floor of the atrium and hung banners down the banisters that said, “Stop Enbridge Line 3” and “Keep it in the ground!”

Response from Enbridge

“Our first priority is the safety of all involved – our workers, law enforcement and the protesters themselves,” said Max Bergeron, spokesman for Enbridge, in an email statement to NetZero Insider. “Our preference is always to seek to resolve differences of opinion through dialogue – peacefully and respectfully.”

But Enbridge does not tolerate “illegal activities of any kind, including trespassing,” Bergeron wrote.

Police guarded employees as they exited the building Tuesday, but protesters say they only want to have a dialogue with Enbridge employees in Massachusetts about the company’s natural gas projects and their impact on human health, such as higher rates of respiratory illnesses.

Bergeron said that Enbridge organizes public meetings, listens to comments from diverse groups and seeks opportunities to “give back and have a positive presence in the community.”

Pipeline projects go through “extensive public permitting processes which provide additional opportunities for those interested to be heard,” Bergeron said.

What Protesters Are Saying

Protesters said they would not leave the office until the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Department ceases its blockade and imprisonment of water protectors on privately owned land in Minnesota and Enbridge cancels its projects in both states, according to Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station (FRRACS).

“We were there at Enbridge to make connections around the Environmental Justice issues that are taking place in Minnesota,” said Rev. Betsy Sowers, the environmental justice coordinator at FRRACS.

Enbridge was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.

The sheriff department’s blockade is preventing the delivery of food and water to peaceful protestors. And Enbridge is drilling under the Mississippi River and through rice fields that are protected by treaties.

Court cases against Enbridge’s projects are being fought at the federal level, but the company continues to build and operate its pipelines while the cases are ongoing.

“They are unresponsive and opaque” to communications from concerned residents near their project sites, Honoré said.

Sowers left the office after police arrived, but at least 15 protesters remained through Tuesday evening.

“If we can’t breathe the air or drink the water, all the money in the world won’t make a difference,” she told NetZero Insider.

This article was updated on June 30, 2021, at 10:45 a.m., EDT, to include a statement from Enbridge. A second update on June 30, 2021, at 2:15 p.m. EDT, provided the status of the protest on Wednesday afternoon.