Brick Woman Among 4 Arrested During Dakota Pipeline Protest At TD Bank In NJ

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ — A Brick Township woman is one of four activists with the Food & Water Watch, NJ Industrial Union Council and the Green Party of NJ who were arrested Thursday after staging a sit-in at TD Bank’s corporate headquarters, officials said.

The protest was in response to TD Bank’s financial support of the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to the Food & Water Watch group.

The $3.8 billion, 1,100 mile Dakota Access Pipeline is being built by Energy Transfer Partners to transport oil from North Dakota to Illinois, passing through South Dakota and Iowa in the process.

Native Americans and environmental groups have protested the project for months, and over 260 people have been arrested in protests near the site.

Protesters are concerned about 570,000 barrels of fracked oil they say would be shipped per day.

“The risk of a pipeline spill into the Missouri River threatens the drinking water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and 8 million people living downstream,” the group said in a statement.

The protest centered around a $2.5 billion loan TD Bank signed to support the pipeline.

“Not only does this pipeline break the sacred laws of nature, by backing the project without the prior and informed consent of the Sioux Nation, TD Bank violates its own code of corporate responsibility, and the U.S. Government breaks federal law,” said Dr. Margo Simmons, Cherokee/Shawnee/Lakotah/African-American and Green Party of NJ Member. “The land where the Dakota Access Pipeline would cut under the Missouri River is Lakotah land, belonging to the Great Sioux Nation as stipulated by Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.”

In a statement, TD Bank said its oil and gas sector lending constitutes less than 1 percent of its total lending portfolio.

“TD supports responsible energy development,” TD Bank spokeswoman Judy Schmidt said. “We employ due diligence in our lending and investing activities relating to energy production. We also work with our customers, community and environment groups, and energy clients to better understand key issues of concern, and to promote informed dialogue.”

About a dozen protesters staged a sit-in in the bank’s lobby, according to the Burlington County Times. When Mount Laurel police showed up and told them to leave, four remained for an additional 30 minutes before being arrested.

Those four were identified as: Dorothy M. Ji, 75, of East Brunswick; Manijeh M. Saba, 69, of Somerset; John T. Glick, 67, of Bloomfield; and Carol E. Gayfauntini, 69, of Brick.

They were released later in the day, with court proceedings to come next week.

Reporting by Anthony Bellano (Patch Staff) The attached image was posted on the Food & Water Watch Facebook page.