Three people were arrested Monday in Carlton County at a construction site for the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline, including one person who was on top of a pipe as it was being lowered into a trench.

On Monday afternoon at 3:30 PM, tribal officers from the Fond du Lac Police Department and deputies from the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of people trespassing in the area of State Highway 210 and Hohensee Road.

According to a release by the Northern Lights Task Force, “Protesters, numbering less than a dozen, got into the construction area of the pipeline and one protester, described as an adult male, got onto a pipe as it was being lowered into a trench filled with water.”

The event was live streamed on Facebook by a Water Protector group called Camp Miigizi.

The group identified the protestor as Jeffery Nichols-Haining. In a release, Camp Miigizi says “Jeff sat on the pipe for nearly five hours, preventing workers from putting the pipe onto frozen sandbags which would have damaged the structural integrity of the pipeline.”

Area fire departments were called, including a specialized trench rescue team out of Virginia, Minnesota. An ambulance was also called to the scene. Two protesters blocked the ambulance’s access and were subsequently arrested. The two adult males, both reporting to be from out of state, were arrested and booked into the Carlton County Jail on misdemeanor charges.

At around 10:30 PM Monday night, Nichols-Haining was taken into custody and seen by paramedics.  He will be booked into the Carlton County Jail on Probable Cause Gross Misdemeanor Trespass.

By — Betsy Melin