MINNEAPOLIS — Over two days last November, an aircraft outfitted with high-definition thermal imaging equipment flew the 340-mile length of the Line 3 oil pipeline across Minnesota. It was scouting for evidence of more construction-related damage to the state's aquifers.
Oil has been flowing through the completed pipeline for months now, but the White Earth Band of Ojibwe — Minnesota's largest Native American tribe with about 20,000 members — continues fighting the project in court, and through extraordinary surveillance efforts.
The band now says aerial imaging found six more sites that indicate potential breaches to public groundwater resources.
