Despite below freezing temperatures, deafening sound cannons and tear gas explosions going off left and right, Grace Chadwick, cousin of Greta Markey ‘18, and several hundred other self-proclaimed “water protectors” continue to fight to protect the environment from the installation of gas pipelines. It was not until early December when former President Barack Obama finally heard the cries of the protectors and declared the termination of the drilling of the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to CNN News on Dec. 5.

“This earth is so precious and she is not going to stay the way she has been for a very long time because of the harm that we have done to her,” Chadwick said in an exclusive interview with LION. “Mankind is a very beautiful species, but it has done more destruction than any other species on this planet.”

On Dec. 4, 2016, the protectors in Standing Rock, North Dakota, received word that the Army Corps of Engineers denied Energy Transfer Partners’ appeasement to drill under the Missouri River, she said. Although the statement seems promising, Chadwick and others on the site believe this denial will not halt the corporation from eventually installing the pipeline.

“We don’t know if they are really going to stop drilling,” she said. “This company is very greedy and they will continue to drill because they still want to make a profit.”

The 20 year-old Boston native believed it was her calling to travel to Standing Rock and join the other water protectors after her nannying job was discontinued in San Diego, Calif., Chadwick said. Ever since then, she awaited the termination of the pipeline’s construction.

According to AP Environmental Science teacher Eric Nuss, a pipeline moves oil or natural gas from where it is drilled to a refinery. Although proclaimed to be more environmentally friendly than diesel trucks as a form of transport, it is not uncommon for a pipeline to accidentally spill hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into a body of water, Nuss said.

“In reality, companies who construct pipelines do not have enough safeguards for when these spills happen,” Nuss said. “There are better ways to make them, but it would cost more money.”

While hoping for the termination of the pipeline’s construction, Chadwick and her peers experienced extremely uncooperative police officers on the campsite, she said.

“I watched a man get thrown to the ground by a police officer, get handcuffed, and then be pepper sprayed with goggles on, so the goggles trapped it inside,” Chadwick said. “He was screaming for over a half an hour at the top of his lungs. We were begging the police officers to please put water in his eyes until they finally reasoned with us.”

In addition to seeing the man pepper sprayed, Chadwick was tear gassed twice throughout her time at Standing Rock, along with witnessing a girl’s arm being blown off by a sound cannon and another girl losing her eye, she said.

“It’s messed up,” Chadwick said. “But water protectors are warriors. They don’t back down.”

Despite climate hardships, police brutality and the unpromising end to the pipeline’s construction, Chadwick plans to stay in North Dakota until their mission is complete and believes that this is just the first step to a bigger picture.

“Whether we win this battle or not, there are more and more environmental injustices happening all around the world,” she said. “Yeah, we’re doing good here, but we’re still going to keep fighting. All of us. We all have to do our part.”