Fossil fuel corporations behind the Byhalia Pipeline said: “We took, basically, a point of least resistance.”
They were wrong.
Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP) is a Black-led grassroots movement in Memphis, Tennessee that fought and beat Valero Energy Corporation and Plains All American’s Byhalia Connection Pipeline, a proposed crude oil pipeline that would cut through Southwest Memphis communities already burdened by decades of environmental injustice.
The Memphis City Council and Shelby County Commissioners have the power to protect the community now and our water source - the Memphis Sand Aquifer which over one million people rely on it. Take Action to let Memphis leaders know protecting water matters!
Putting Drinking Water at Risk
Plains All American and its business partners propose building a high-pressure crude oil pipeline across a pristine drinking water aquifer in Memphis, Tennessee and northern Mississippi. That aquifer provides drinking water to more than one million people. If built, the pipeline will cross over the aquifer in an active earthquake zone, and it will cross a municipal wellfield that supplies drinking water to local Black residents in Memphis.
A land agent for the pipeline stated that the company chose to site the pipeline in Boxtown because it is “the point of least resistance.” Moreover, the pipeline company has a known history of significant oil spills.
Environmental Injustice
The pipeline project smacks of environmental injustice. The pipeline route cuts through several Black communities in southwest Memphis, including the Boxtown community. The community got its name after formerly enslaved people used scraps of materials and wood from train boxcars to build homes there in the late 19th century. Southwest Memphis is already burdened by dozens of industrial facilities, and subjecting those Black communities to more environmental degradation is wrong.
The Community Is Fighting Back
Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP) is an organization of community members who are tired of environmental injustices being perpetrated in southwest Memphis, and it has generated a groundswell of opposition. MCAP has joined forces with Breach Collective, the Southern Environmental Law Center, Protect Our Aquifer, and the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club to oppose the pipeline and protect our communities into the future. In addition, local landowners fought and beat back the pipeline company despite being sued in condemnation proceedings.
A Massive Oil Spill Can’t Be Reversed in this already burdened community fighting environmental injustice.
The Memphis Sand Aquifer is a precious and limited natural resource that underlies much of West Tennessee, Northern Mississippi and several other states. The aquifer supplies Memphis and Shelby County with clean, reliable drinking water, and it supplies water used by numerous industries and agricultural producers throughout West Tennessee and Northern Mississippi. The aquifer is the sole source of drinking water in Memphis. If the aquifer becomes polluted by a massive oil spill, the consequences for Memphis, West Tennessee, and Northern Mississippi will be disastrous.
The U. S. Army Corps recently provided the pipeline company with a fast- track approval to proceed. Pipeline opponents encourage the Biden Administration to review the matter thoroughly and overturn the Army Corps’ fast-track approval.