By Pat Sweeney
Jun 22, 2021 | 4:44 PM
The employer of a man who was run over by a large forklift while working on a northern Minnesota oil pipeline project has been cited by state regulators and fined $25,000. Authorities say 45-year-old Jorge Villafuerte III was checking a list of materials at the Enbridge Energy Line 3 site near Hill City while standing behind an industrial forklift when it backed over him. The Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration in May cited Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based Precision Pipeline for a serious safety violation. Precision Pipeline is contesting the citation. Line 3 starts in Alberta and clips a corner of North Dakota before crossing northern Minnesota en route to Enbridge’s terminal in Superior, Wisconsin.
Minnesota regulators fine company for Line 3 pipeline death wdio.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wdio.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Exploiting More Than the Land: Sex Violence Linked to Enbridge Line 3 Pipeliners
One toxic byproduct of pipeline construction has largely escaped public scrutiny: sexual assaults linked to Line 3 workers.
Jared Rodriguez / Truthout
As the national fight over Enbridge’s 337-mile Line 3 tar sands pipeline in Minnesota continues to intensify amid protests by Indigenous Water Protectors, one toxic byproduct of the pipeline’s construction has largely escaped public scrutiny: sexual assaults and harassment incidents linked to Line 3 workers.
The devastating trend has long plagued U.S. fossil fuel and extraction projects, especially those adjacent to tribal reservations, and helps fuel a much larger human rights crisis in which thousands of Indigenous women and girls are killed or disappeared at shocking rates each year, often after having been trafficked, sexually assaulted or harassed.
2 arrests in human trafficking sting were Line 3 workers
Activists opposed to Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline have long argued its construction would bring sex crimes to northern Minnesota. 6:45 pm, Feb. 23, 2021 ×
Enbridge s Line 3 oil pipeline under construction near the intersection of Hohensee and West Moorhead roads in Carlton County in January. (Clint Austin / 2021 file / caustin@duluthnews.com)
Two of the men charged in last week’s Itasca County human trafficking bust were working on Enbridge s Line 3 project, fueling concern that construction of the oil pipeline is bringing a higher risk of sex crimes to the area.
Michael Kelly West, 53, of Rolla, Missouri, was charged with one count of carrying a pistol without a permit and one count of solicitation to engage in prostitution.