Charly Haley

chaley@dmreg.com

Thirty protesters were arrested Saturday at the Dakota Access oil pipeline's southeast Iowa construction site, authorities confirmed.

Twenty to 30 people are staying in an encampment on Mississippi River Road, north of Sandusky, Ia., near the construction site, but activists said each weekend brings many more protesters. The activists oppose construction of the pipeline, which will cross Iowa to transport oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields to Patoka, Ill.

About 200 protesters were at the site Saturday, where they dismantled part of a fence surrounding the construction site, said Ruby Montoya, spokeswoman for Mississippi Stand, the group organizing protests at the Mississippi River site. The protesters' encampment has been there for about four weeks, she said.

Saturday's protests were the most recent against the pipeline in Iowa, including similar protests in Boone. There is also a massive encampment at Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, near the start of the pipeline route. The Standing Rock protests have drawn national attention to the pipeline's opposition.

Thirty people, including four juveniles, were arrested at the Iowa site as part of Saturday's protests, according to Alex Murphy, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

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All 30 were charged with trespassing, Murphy said. Five were incarcerated while the other 25 were released after being cited, he said. He said he could not confirm why the five people were jailed because the arrests were made by the Lee County Sheriff's Office, with state troopers only assisting.

A sergeant with the Lee County Jail said Sunday night that two other people were arrested for trespassing early Saturday, in addition to the 30 charged at the protest.

The protest remained peaceful, Montoya said. The Mississippi Stand group expects to have similar mass demonstrations each week "until the pipeline is stopped," she said.

Jess Mazour, of the advocacy organization Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, traveled with a group from Des Moines to the southeast Iowa protests Saturday.

"We are here because we want to protect our water, and we want to protect our land," Mazour said.

Protesters have said the oil pipeline could negatively affect the quality of drinking water along the pipeline route, including water from the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, among other environmental impacts. Montoya and Mazour also said they're protesting in Iowa to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which has said construction for the pipeline is endangering sacred sites on the Indian reservation, as well as compromising the tribe's water supply.

Montoya said the number of protesters at the Mississippi River site is growing.

"I'm staying here until the pipeline is shut down," she said.

The $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline is expected to carry about 450,000 barrels per day, with capacity of up to 570,000 barrels per day. The pipeline, which would be 30 inches in diameter, will start in the Bakken oil fields near Stanley, N.D., cross South Dakota and Iowa, and end at Patoka, Ill., where the oil can be transported via another pipeline to the Gulf Coast or shipped to other markets.

Officials with Dakota Access, a unit of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, have previously declined to comment on the protests in Iowa.

The company had previously sought a court order to restrict protesters but has since dropped the lawsuit.