Water barrage, tear gas fired at protesters in Bakken pipeline ‘riot’

CANNON BALL, N.D. - In another violent clash over the Dakota Access pipeline, authorities fired tear gas and sprayed water in freezing weather at hundreds of protesters who officials said were pelting officers with rocks in an 'ongoing riot” that began Sunday evening and continued into Monday.

An estimated 400 protesters mounted the Backwater Bridge just north of Cannon Ball, N.D., and attempted to force their way past police and closer to the area where pipeline construction is halted.

The $3.7 billion Dakota Access project - which would cross 18 counties in Iowa on its way from the Bakken oil fields to a distribution hub in Illinois - has drawn heated opposition since last year.

Monday in Des Moines, three protesters began a hunger strike outside the Iowa Utilities Board headquarters, hoping to persuade regulators to yank permits for the project in the state. Pipeline developer Dakota Access has said work on the Iowa route is nearly complete.

Activist supporting the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota are tying to stop the pipeline from being bored under the Missouri River there - close to the tribe's source of drinking water and its sacred lands.

The latest clash played out near one about three weeks ago where authorities rousted protesters from what they called a forward camp - one within distant sight of workers constructing the pipeline. In that fiery protest, 139 people were arrested on felony charges and demonstrators were forced back.

In that incident, protesters set fire to several vehicles blocking the Backwater Bridge on Highway 1806.

In a statement, activist groups said protesters were trying to remove those burned vehicles to restore access to nearby Standing Rock Sioux encampments so emergency services and local traffic could move freely.

But police fired volleys of tear gas at the protesters to prevent them from crossing the bridge. Law enforcement also fired rubber bullets and sprayed protesters with water in temperatures that reached as low as 18 degrees overnight.

'It is below freezing right now and the Morton County Sheriff's Department is using a water cannon on our people - that is an excessive and potentially deadly use of force,” said Dallas Goldtooth, a spokesman for the Indigenous Environmental Network.

He said 180 people were injured as a result of being doused by water and pepper spray and being hit by rubber bullets and concussion grenades. He said 17 people had been transported to hospitals. One person went into cardiac arrest and was subsequently resuscitated, he said.

In a news conference Monday afternoon, a law enforcement official said the protesters were hurling rocks - or firing them from slingshots - and may have been trying to use camping fuel cylinders as explosives. One officer was hit in the head with a rock but not hospitalized.

A statement from the Morton County Sheriff's Department said only one arrest had been made in the overnight protest.

The department said officers on the scene were 'describing protesters' actions as very aggressive” and classified them as an ”ongoing riot.”

Demonstrators tried to start about a dozen fires as they attempted to outflank and 'attack” law enforcement barricades, the statement said.

Dave Archambault, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, said law enforcement is escalating the violence.

'They say these are non-lethal weapons, but a water cannon in freezing weather is lethal. Using concussion grenades with tear gas can be lethal,” he said.

Later Monday, tensions were eased as only a few dozen protesters remained on the disputed bridge, the Bismark Tribune reported. But the state Capitol is Bismark was on a 'soft lockdown” - employees and the public could gain access for normal business - for fear of other protests.

Completion of the pipeline was delayed in September so the Army Corps of Engineers could re-examine permits that allow construction under the Missouri River.

The main company behind the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners of Texas, is building the line to bring oil from North Dakota to Illinois en route to the Gulf Coast.

On a conference call Monday of market analysts, officials said they still expect final approval for the pipeline by the end of this year.

Reuters, the Washington Post and the Bismark Tribune contributed to this report.