'Raging Granny' locked to equipment at Mountain Valley Pipeline construction site

ELLISTON, Va. – A "raging granny" has locked herself to equipment at a Mountain Valley Pipeline construction site in Montgomery County. 

According to Appalachians Against Pipelines, the self-identified "raging granny," 75-year-old Duff Benjamin, is attached to equipment under a banner reading "PIPELINES BLOW" on Cove Hollow Road near the tree sits outside Elliston. 

The activist group says Benjamin has shut down construction at the site. 

Below is a statement from Benjamin, sent out by the protest group: 

"The problem with pipelines is they always leak. What they leak are toxins into the land, then water and air. The other problem with pipelines is that they frequently explode, and when they do, it's the equivalent of a dirty bomb going off into poor Black and Latino neighborhoods- communities that pipelines are purposely routed through and near (never through wealthy white neighborhoods!). Because I see human kind as one huge family, and I am a member, I cannot sit back and watch this happen silently. I must voice my thoughts and feelings. I say NO! STOP IT!"