Protest blocks train tracks; 5 taken into custody

EVERETT — More than two dozen people opposed to shipments of oil and coal blocked railroad tracks and cheered from bridges above a Burlington Northern Santa Fe yard on Tuesday morning.

The demonstration began about 6 a.m. in what’s known as the Delta rail yard along the Snohomish River in north Everett, with people erecting an 18-foot-high tripod across the tracks. On a siding nearby, a long train of oil tank cars sat idle.

Five people were either on or otherwise attached to the tripod. Others mingled on and alongside the tracks.

The five protesters were cut free or lowered to the ground and arrested. They were handcuffed and driven off in police cars around 2:30 p.m.

Among them were recently retired Everett schoolteacher Jackie Minchew and Everett cafe owner Mike Lapointe. Both have run unsuccessfully for public office — Minchew for Everett City Council, Lapointe for Congress in the 2nd District.

“We are doing what is called a peaceful, non-violent protest,” Minchew said by cellphone during the protest. He said he’s concerned about global warming and climate disruption.

The demonstration was announced by the group Rising Tide Seattle to protest shipments of oil, coal and gas by train and proposed shipping terminals in the Northwest. Delaney Piper, a spokeswoman for the protesters, said that using a structure like the tripod is unusual in a developed area. Typically, such structures are used to protest in the forest.

Abby Brockway, a Seattle woman wearing a green hard hat and bright yellow windbreaker, was suspended from the tripod, which resembled a bare teepee. She was wedged into the bough of the protruding poles.

Brockway said she didn’t know if she would be able to see her daughter, 12, off to her first day of school Wednesday.

“She is disappointed, but I know that someday she will understand,” she said.

Brockway said she has never been arrested but felt strongly enough about the danger of an oil train catastrophe and the damage to the climate to take a stand.

“It is a fossil-fuel cocktail,” she said.

While her daughter went to YMCA camp over the summer, Brockway went to “Action Camp” to learn protest strategies.

“I grew up in the 1970s,” she said by cellphone. “I sat in the long lines to get gas during the energy crisis. That fear of insecurity was there. As a kid I couldn’t do anything about it. Now I’m a mother and I can do something about it. There has got to be a better energy policy.”

Brockway was arrested after being lowered from her perch in the bucket of an Everett Fire Department ladder truck. Firefighters used hydraulic cutters to remove the other four, who had attached themselves to the tripod using various material.

An increase in the number of trains bearing oil from the northern Great Plains, and the possibility that coal shipments also will increase in coming years, have created concern among environmentalists and local officials.

A similar protest in Anacortes in July targeted the Tesoro refinery there, where Bakken crude oil shipments arrive by rail. Meanwhile, there are plans for a coal shipping terminal at Cherry Point.

Aside from concerns regarding the continued use of fossil fuel and its effect on the environment, safety concerns have emerged with increasing oil traffic on the rails. Last year, a runaway train carrying volatile oil from North Dakota derailed, hurtled down an incline and slammed into downtown Lac-Megantic, Quebec. Several train cars exploded and 40 buildings were leveled.

And in Seattle on July 24, a BNSF oil train derailed and three tank cars were damaged.

BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said the Everett protesters blocked freight trains at the yard but the main line remained open.

The five people chained to the tripod will at a minimum face criminal trespass charges, Melonas said. They also could face charges for disrupting service and other allegations, he said. Eight protesters who were by the tracks but not attached to the tripod were issued warnings and peacefully left the property, Melonas said.

Everett police officers were standing by with BNSF security officers, who typically handle situations involving trespassing on railroad property.

Herald writers Rikki King and Chuck Taylor and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Lynnwood
Crash in Lynnwood blocks Highway 99 south

The crash, on Highway 99 at 176th Street SW, fully blocked southbound lanes. Traffic was diverted to 168th Street SW.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett to welcome new CEO

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.