“The plain language of Nationwide Permit 12 does not allow for the construction of pipelines near drinking water intakes,” said the letter. In addition, the letter urged the Corps to determine that the project is contrary to the public interest because it would unjustly burden vulnerable communities like Boxtown, which already is heavily built up with industrial facilities like a Valero Energy oil refinery and a retired coal plant plagued with extensive coal ash contamination.
“We’re alarmed that, so far, no local, state or federal agency is looking out for the groundwater that serves as Memphis’s drinking water,” said Senior Attorney George Nolan. “If this oil pipeline leaks or spills, as many have done before, it could have devastating effects on the residents that live in southwest Memphis and their drinking water source.”
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A crowd of nearly 60 residents and activists gathered on Saturday at T.O. Fuller State Park in the Boxtown neighborhood to protest Valero’s construction of a new pipeline in Memphis, Tenn.
Cutting across some of the most marginalized neighborhoods in the city, the Byhalia Connection Pipeline threatens the health and safety of thousands of Memphians, mostly Black. But residents from the Boxtown Neighborhood Association, Protect Our Aquifer, Black Lives Matter, and the Facebook group Memphis Community Against the Pipeline are organizing to oppose the project. As resident and organizer Baxel Booker said at the rally, “For too many years, Boxtown has been the dumping place for the rest of Memphis.”