User:Grace.Bird/sandbox

The Byhalia Pipeline, also referred to as the Byhalia Connection Pipeline, was a proposed 49-mile crude oil connection pipeline project in Memphis, Tennessee. Proposed by two companies, Plains All American Pipeline and Valero Energy, the pipline was canceled in July 2021 after months of opposition, activism, and resistance. Opposition gained national attention from organizations included Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP), Protect Our Aquifer, the Memphis and Mid-South Chapter of The Climate Reality Project, and other partnered organizations. The Plains All American Pipeline director of communications stated that the project was no longer being pursued "primarily due to lower U.S. oil production resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic".

Additionally, the proposed pipeline would have crossed over the Memphis Sand Aquifer. This aquifer supplies clean drinking water to Memphis and Shelby county, the largest metropolitan center that is exclusively supplied by a groundwater aquifer (2). Because this pipeline would carry crude oil and crude oil is known to carry carcinogens, all Memphis citizens would have been in danger if this pipeline spilled or leaked into the already vulnerable aquifer. Experts suggest that 25 million gallons of groundwater can be contaminated by only one pound of crude oil (1). The protection of the aquifer and the injustices surrounding the pipeline construction sparked much activism and resistance.