Pipeline protesters block trains at Port of Vancouver

VANCOUVER 2019--VANCOUVER -- Environmental activists staged a protest at the Port of Vancouver, blocking train tracks with the goal of disrupting the transport of pipe bound for the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project in Canada.

The Columbian reports that the group Portland Rising Tide began posting photos on social media at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday, showing a group of people standing on a rail crossing at Terminal 5 near the port's western truck entrance.

The Trans Mountain Pipeline carries crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to the British Columbia coast for export. The expansion project would add a second parallel line that would nearly triple the system's capacity.

The piping is being imported by ship and loaded on to train cars at the Port to be taken to Alberta, and the activists said their goal was to disrupt that process by blocking the port's internal rail loop.

Thursday's protest was the second at the Port of Vancouver in recent weeks. In early September, about 30 kayakers from the Pacific Northwest activist group Mosquito Fleet paddled from Kelley Point Park in Portland to the Port of Vancouver to protest a cargo ship that was carrying piping for the expansion project.

Thursday’s protest group included about 17 people, according to Rising Tide organizer Kelsey Baker. She said police officers arrived afterward but did not arrest anyone.