Tuesday, March 3, 2015 – Donnellson, Iowa

Brenda Knox

Brenda Knox runs the public library in Donnellson, population 904. For a small town, the job keeps her quite busy. She’s helping to lead a campaign to build a new library. Last year, she didn’t even use all her vacation time.

Despite the demands of home, work and community, when Brenda heard about my walk, she reached out and offered to help in any way possible. She knew this pipeline was a threat not only to her family’s farm, but to her neighbors – both those nearby and those across the globe.

Brenda took three days off work, contacted the local press, and organized two meetings and a school presentation. She walked part of the first two days with me, and is now the proud owner of an impressive blister and two sore legs. She and her husband, Matt, and four frisky ferrets, have put me up for the past three nights. They have fed and ferried me and been wonderfully gracious hosts.

Most important, Brenda is getting the word out about the eminent domain bill moving through the Iowa Legislature. One aspect of the bill clarifies that a pipeline transporting oil across Iowa to refineries in Texas does not qualify as providing a “public use.” That clarification could stop the Bakken Oil Pipeline once and for all.