Displaying items by tag: byhalia pipeline

This pumping station in Dickson County was the site of a 1992 gas line rupture. John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout

Bill eliminating local oversight of fossil-fuel infrastructure passes state Senate at behest of fuel companies, now on to House

This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

UPDATE: The state House approved the bill March 29 with moderating amendments sought by local governments and environmental and social justice advocates.

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Senate passed a controversial pipeline preemption bill on Thursday in spite of concerns about the effect oil and gas pipelines could have on personal property and drinking water.

Before passage, Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, sponsor of SB2077, amended the bill to allow for wellhead protections and to align with its House counterpart. Critics still contended that with local governments lacking the ability to regulate fossil fuel infrastructure, communities could do little to protect themselves from unwanted pipelines. 

GOP-led Legislature aims to ban local decisions on fossil-fuel infrastructure

This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

Per updated TL reporting, this bill was deferred to March 15 for committee consideration.

Memphis activist Justin Pearson spent years trying to pass legislation to protect his city’s natural drinking water, but a bill being fast tracked through the state Legislature is threatening his efforts.  

Last week, environmental activists learned that Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville, and Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, are seeking to pass a bill aimed at removing local government control over land use zoning for fossil fuel infrastructure. 

Both the Tennessee State House and Senate Commerce Committees will vote on HB2246 and SB2077 on Tuesday, and if the bill passes, it could be on the Legislature floor by Thursday. 

Memphis residents have pushed back against the Byhalia Pipeline project. The proposed pipeline has been the subject of controversy since 2019. The joint venture project would build a 49-mile pipeline between Memphis and Mississippi and would run through several Black communities in Memphis. VALERO Memphis Refinery, shown here, is along the Mississippi River’s Lake McKellar in South Memphis. Photo by Karen Pulfer Focht

Opponents of Memphis pipeline cite textbook examples of environmental racism

(This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout).

Memphis City Council passed an ordinance this month protecting the Memphis Sand Aquifer after environmental activists spent nearly a year fighting to protect it against a crude-oil pipeline.

The city council passed on second reading an ordinance establishing the city government’s role in  overseeing future developments in Memphis and how they may impact the aquifer, which serves as the area’s main drinking water supply. 

The ordinance will be up for a third and final vote on Aug. 17.

Since 2019, environmental and racial justice advocates have protested plans to build the Byhalia Pipeline, a joint venture between Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline and Valero Energy Corporation, in a historically Black neighborhood located in Southwest Memphis. What started as criticisms turned into full-blown protests that gathered national attention and support from prominent political figures, including former Vice President Al Gore and civil rights leader the Rev. William Barber.

The council used the Federal and Tennessee Safe Drinking Water Act as an authorizing agent for local government’s ability to protect public drinking water.

The Memphis City Council first discussed legislation to protect the aquifer in May 2021 and introduced ordinances that would affect the Byhalia Pipeline. 

The resolution established an Underground Infrastructure Advisory Board to review all future developments within Memphis and prohibit those that carried hazardous liquids. According to council documents, developments must not pass within 1,000 feet of the Wellhead Protection Areas, which access existing public water supplies. 

Byhalia Pipeline representatives threatened to file a lawsuit against the city council if they were to pass legislation that regulated future developments, causing the council to delay the vote. 

Byhalia Pipeline representatives then abandoned the project in July but said they still considered filing a lawsuit if the resolution were to pass. 

Councilman Jeff Warren, who sponsored the resolution, said “lawsuits are always possible.”

Local community leaders and critics called the Byhalia Pipeline an example of environmental racism, adding that Memphis communities were already burdened by harmful environmental issues caused by nearby oil refineries, wastewater treatment facilities, industrial manufacturers and power plants.

These factors led to cancer risks four-times the national average, and any contamination of the area’s drinking water could potentially turn the area into another Flint, Michigan, a city whose water system was contaminated with lead.