![Adding a tray of canned corn to the pile, junior Michael Collop assists in transporting donations for the Holiday Food Drive. The event, hosted schoolwide from Dec. 10-17, raised over 5,000 food items to deliver to the Parkway Food Pantry, helping several families in need. [The drive] is a great thing for us to do because you're giving to those who are less fortunate, and it helps provide for people who can't provide for themselves. [The] competition is always fun, too. It was fun to be in [social studies teacher Jess] Chazen’s class, because he always gets worked up over [the competition]. He made it exciting, and was always convincing us to turn in cans for the drive,” Collop said.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/feature-photo-unsung-2.png)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
Line 3 in use, destruction arises
Tom Webster, "Enbridge Line 3 Oil Pipeline Construction in Hubbard County Minnesota" (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://www.flickr.com/photos/diversey/51242909498
Enbridge has spent the last seven years building the 1,031 mile long Line 3 pipeline.
October 14, 2021
Barely three days after oil first flowed through the new Line 3 pipeline on Oct. 1, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources released information on the environmental destruction caused by the pipeline’s construction.
Construction punctured aquifers in January, and Artesian groundwater in the rural community of Clearwater County has been welling up since then. Twenty-four million gallons of water have been wasted, drying out two fens, rare wetland areas. The fens are home to many threatened plants and other species, as they are one of the rarest freshwater ecosystems. State regulators forced the construction company Enbridge to launch a cleanup effort. Because of its rural location and Enbridge not reporting the incident, the DNR only addressed the issue when they discovered it in September. The DNR fined Enbridge $3.3 million for damage caused to the aquifers and gave the company a month to stop the water flow.
Senior Grant Mortenson said, “I believe that 3 million is nowhere near enough to cover the damages caused by this destruction. Aquifers and rare ecosystems are fragile and take an extremely long amount of time to form and fully develop. 3 million dollars cannot begin to cover the restoration of these damages, and its almost shocking to think such a small amount was even considered, let alone agreed upon. How can we make a company pay 3 million for something that is priceless?”
Enbridge has until Oct. 15 to fix the issue. Currently, the plan is to drill a new well to pump the leaked water into and then inject a clay and cement mixture into the ground to seal the leak. The company will install 400 two-inch pipes to inject the grout into the ground. If the small pipes don’t stop the leak, the next step would be to install eight-foot-wide columns of grout. The DNR is investigating the incident for potential criminal charges.
Junior Valerie Wick said, “I think it’s clearer than ever that Line 3 shouldn’t have been built in the first place. First of all, Line 3 encroaches on the treaty of rights imposed upon the Anishinaabeg people in 1855, which states that the U.S. government would protect primary areas for fishing, hunting, or the growth of wild rice or interfere with the land of cultural importance to the Anishinaabeg people within the treaty territory. Frankly, I think this kind of blatant disrespect is an embarrassment to state regulators and the U.S. government. And if that wasn’t enough, Line 3 is cancerous to its surrounding environment.”
Environmental groups, scientists, and Native Americans protested the construction of Line 3 in fear of the possibility of this issue and similar environmentally devastating situations. Many Native American water protectors believe that the incident was completely avoidable if state regulators listened to them. For instance, White Earth tribal lawyer Frank Bibeau debated that the DNR would have known about the punctured aquifer earlier if they held a public hearing, which water protectors requested, before giving Enbridge access to more water and land. DNR Deputy Commissioner Barb Naramore reported that a public hearing wouldn’t have prevented the incident and that they have no control over the use of the pipeline, even if it is harming the environment.
This story was originally published on The Rubicon on October 11, 2021.
