Gainesville residents march against Dakota Access, Sabal Trail pipelines

Standing at all four corners of a Gainesville intersection Tuesday, about 150 protesters elicited honks and hollers of approval and disdain as they opposed the Dakota Access and Sabal Trail pipelines.

The Sabal Trail pipeline, which received its final permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in August, will run throughout Alabama, Georgia and Florida, carrying natural gas. The proposed Dakota Access pipeline would carry crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois.

At the intersection of Northwest 43rd Street and Northwest 16th Boulevard, protesters waved signs reading “oil spills = painful death” and chanting “can’t drink oil, keep it in the soil.”

After standing there for nearly two hours, the group marched half a mile to the local U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office on Northwest 41st Street, only to find it closed. Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, an organizer of the protest, said she had called before, confirming the office would be open today and to let them know protestors were coming with questions.

The office told her they would be prepared, she said. But when the protesters reached it, they found it closed, with only a sign redirecting those with questions about either pipeline to call a number.

“It was kind of a let down, because we were told that we were going to have our questions answered by a representative of Army Corp of Engineers,” she said.

Malwitz-Jipson, a campaign organizer with the Sierra Club, said although President Barack Obama and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers delayed the approval of the Dakota Access pipeline this week, she thinks President-elect Donald Trump will move forward with both pipelines and plans for extracting more fossil fuels.

This will have a negative effect on the environment and contaminate water, she said.

Christina Layton, who lives in Putnam County, drove more than 40 minutes to protest with her mother and two sons, because she worries about the possible contamination of water near the pipelines.

Her son, Liam, 7, sat on his grandmother’s lap while chanting “Water is life.”

“Nothing will grow without water, and nothing will win without water,” he said.

Sharon Huston holds a sign with her grandson James’ picture on the corner of Northwest 43rd Street and Northwest 23rd Avenue. Huston said she is worried the pipeline’s proximity to Dunnellon schools could affect her grandson and the community.