A man and a woman were arrested Wednesday after lodging themselves inside a pipe at the Sabal Trail Pipeline construction site.

  • Protesters entered Sabal Trail Pipeline Wednesday
  • Environmentalists fear a pipeline rupture could contaminate Florida water supply
  • Protesters arrested on several charges

The two people were protesting the construction of the pipeline, which will move natural gas through several Florida counties to Florida Power and Light's plant in Martin County. Duke Energy will also benefit.

Protesters are upset that the pipeline is passing under the state's springs. If something happens to the line, they fear the water could be affected. 

Florida's springs are connected to the state's aquifer, which provides drinking water. 

The Marion County Sheriff's Office says Nicholas Segal-Wright, 25, and Karrie Kay Ford, 29, trespassed onto the construction site in the morning and entered the natural gas pipeline itself.

They entered at an above-ground area of the pipeline along the 12500 block of SW Highway 200 in Dunnellon.

Deputies and fire crews spent several hours trying to locate the protesters. They were forced to check all of the pipes, and even asked Citrus County crews to check the pipes on that side of Dunnellon.


Crews discuss the difficulty in finding two protesters who entered the Sabal Trail Pipeline Wednesday. (Facebook video courtesy of Cody Suggs)

Once they located them, deputies tried to convince them to come out voluntarily.

They say Segal-Wright and Ford used a device to lock themselves together and make it more difficult to be individually removed.

Segal-Wright was eventually removed around 1 p.m., and Ford was removed around 2 p.m. 

Both were checked out by paramedics before being taken to Marion County Jail.

They both faces charges of grand theft, trespassing and criminal mischief. The grand theft charge stems from "temporarily depriving the construction company from the use of their pipeline."

Protests against the Sabal Trail Pipeline have gone on for months. A protest was held in Orlando in December. 

The project is scheduled to be online by the end of June 2017.


The Sabal Trail Pipeline runs through Alabama, Georgia and Florida to FPL's power plant in Martin County.