Tag: Southern Environmental Law Center

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Lawmakers Revisit West Tennessee Wetlands Development

Ford BlueOval City, photographed while under construction in April 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Tennessee lawmakers are revisiting plans to roll back state regulations that protect nearly half a million acres of Tennessee wetlands from development.

For months, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has elicited feedback from developers and conservation groups, at odds over state wetland policy, in order to achieve consensus.

Thursday’s meeting of the Senate Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee demonstrated how little agreement has been achieved thus far.

Allowing unchecked development on Tennessee’s wetlands — which serve to absorb floodwaters and replenish aquifers — could lead to flooding that will cost taxpayers “millions and millions of dollars down the road,” David Salyers, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), told lawmakers.

“There’s about seven million Tennesseans that hope we get this right,” Salyers said “There are future generations that depend on us to get this right.”

Developers, seeking to gain from building boom tied to Ford plant, push for weaker wetland rules

Salyer’s agency has proposed doubling the area of wetlands that can be developed without a state permit from a quarter-acre to half an acre. The agency has also proposed reducing costly payments from developers tied to the area of wetlands they propose to disturb. And it has proposed streamlining red tape.

TDEC’s recommendations followed the efforts earlier this year by Collierville Republican Kevin Vaughan, to significantly roll back wetland protections. Vaughan’s bill ultimately failed, but could be revived when the legislature reconvenes in January.

Developers who testified Thursday criticized TDEC recommendations for not going far enough to remove onerous hurdles that drive up project timelines and increase costs.

“We’re not looking at a broad redo of wetlands across the state…we’re not looking to damage the hunting lands that are out there. We’re not looking to create floods,” said Keith Grant, a West Tennessee developer, who noted that Tennessee currently has stricter protections over small and isolated wetlands than 24 states and the federal government.

Connecting the dots between Tenn.’s home builders and bill to deregulate construction on wetlands 

“Why would Tennessee be more stringent in regulating wetlands than our federal government when regulation lowers property owners values and increases housing costs for tax paying citizens of Tennessee?” he said.

Conservationists, however, noted the increase in frequency of drought and flooding Tennessee has experienced in recent years, making the natural safeguards that wetlands provide even more vital.

“This is not the right time to turbocharge the hardening of our landscapes, but if we remove our wetlands protections that is exactly what will happen,” said George Nolan, director of the Tennessee office of the Southern Environmental Law Center.

There is no action expected on state wetlands policy until the Legislature reconvenes in January.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.

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Environmental Groups Say xAI Deal Sidestepped MLGW Board, Memphis City Council

Elon Musk. Photo by Trevor Cokley / Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Memphis environmental groups urged officials to deny an electricity deal for xAI, demanded a public review of the project, and said Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) ratepayers could subsidize some large portions of the infrastructure deal.  

Details on the deal that brought the Elon-Musk-founded company to locate its artificial intelligence hub — called the Gigafactory of Compute — to Memphis remain few, even almost two months after its announcement.

A Tuesday letter from the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) outlined those knowledge gaps, showed confusion and ignorance on the deal by local leaders, said the facility would cause environmental harm to those in South Memphis, and that MLGW CEO Doug McGowen may have overstepped the boundaries of his position in approving the deal.

2024-07-29-Memphis-Coalition-Comments-to-TVA-re-Request-to-Serve-xAIDownload

The letter was written and sent by the SELC on behalf of the Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP), Young, Gifted & Green, Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter, and the Sierra Club Chickasaw Group. SELC said, “many of these members will be directly affected by xAI’s operation and its harmful local consequences.” 

The letter was sent to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). SELC said MLGW is requesting TVA to provide xAI 150 megawatts of power. In the letter, SELC argues TVA’s Memphis system is not reliable enough to handle that much new consumption. Also, it said, a deal for the much energy needs more local approvals.

The 150 megawatt demand is enough to power 100,000 homes.

Southern Environmental Law Center

“The xAI facility is demanding a jaw-dropping 150 MW of firm power by the end of 2024,” reads the letter. “To put that demand in perspective, 150 MW is enough electricity to power 100,000 homes. The xAI facility would become MLGW’s largest electricity customer, siphoning five percent of MLGW’s total daily load to power its operations.” 

On reliability, the group said that TVA admitted in October that it did not have enough generating and transmission power in the area even before xAI cam knocking. Back then, TVA proposed a new natural-gas-powered generation project here. The project was necessary to  “improve the stability of its transmission system in the western portion of Tennessee. In this area, additional resources are needed to ensure that adequate transmission voltages are maintained within the desired limits,” SELC said, citing TVA’s report.

“Overcommitting to industrial load, as MLGW and xAI have requested, could have serious and even life-threatening consequences for residential customers in Memphis.

Southern Environmental Law Center

“In other words, TVA had already identified a reliability concern in the Memphis-area grid, even before factoring in xAI’s load,” SELC said. “Overcommitting to industrial load, as MLGW and xAI have requested, could have serious and even life-threatening consequences for residential customers in Memphis, contrary to the purpose of the TVA Act and the board policy. When TVA cannot meet peak demand, families go without power during increasingly severe hot and cold weather.”

Further, TVA’s gas-powered plants here are cooled with water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer. Higher strains on those plants — like during winter-weather events here in 2022 and 2021 — caused a serious draw on the aquifer and threaten well fields ”that provide drinking water for predominantly Black, low-income South Memphis communities.”

For these reasons and more, the group urged TVA board members to study the impacts of xAI’s supercomputer before agreeing to serve the facility. That study should include impacts to air pollution, climate change, water quality, water quantity and access, environmental justice, and transportation, SELC said. 

“It cannot reasonably be disputed that xAI will require TVA to generate additional electricity and add capacity to the system,” the letter said. “TVA must disclose how it proposes to provide power to xAI, analyze alternatives, and study of the same categories of impacts identified in [the proposal for the new gas plant here] before committing to provide power to xAI.” 

SELC also argues that the request to serve xAI is premature “because MLGW has not obtained approval from the MLGW Board or [the Memphis City Council] to spend millions of dollars of ratepayer money to subsidize xAI.” MLGW leaders told council members earlier this month that it would pay for $760,000 worth of substation upgrades for the project. Also, the utility will provide xAI a “marginal allowance” to recoup some of the $24 million it will spent o build a new, $24 million substation, meaning a big break on the company’s power bill.

”Thus, according to MLGW’s presentation [to the council], it seems that over the next few years, ordinary MLGW ratepayers will be subsidizing millions of dollars in infrastructure investments required to serve xAI, both directly and through bill credits to xAI,” the letter said. 

Despite this “apparent massive commitment of ratepayer funds to subsidize xAI’s infrastructure needs,” neither the council nor the MLGW board was aware of the xAI project until it was announced on June 5,” SELC said.

Further, the group said MLGW board members weren’t even aware of MLGW’s request to serve xAI with more power from the TVA as late as two weeks ago. For proof, SELC cited an MLGW board meeting on July 17 in which MLGW board member Mitch Graves said, “On the xAI stuff…I wasn’t aware…that TVA’s got to approve something… hadn’t heard that anywhere…what is that they need to approve?”   

“On the xAI stuff…I wasn’t aware…that TVA’s got to approve something… hadn’t heard that anywhere…what is that they need to approve?”   

SELC citing MLGW board member Mitch Graves

SELC said McGowen negotiated this deal with xAI without oversight from his board or the city council. Doing so, the group said, is a violation of the charters of the council and the board. 

”Proper review by the MLGW board and city council is essential because MLGW faces significant operational constraints that directly affect the Memphis coalition’s members’ access to electricity,” the letter said. ”MLGW must give the MLGW board and city council their charter-given right to evaluate whether it is in the best interest of MLGW ratepayers to subsidize millions of dollars of infrastructure investment in xAI over the next two years, while at the same time struggling to keep the lights on and provide accurate billing statements to residential customers. 

”The TVA board should not consider the pending request until MLGW obtains required local approvals.”

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Health Department: Sterilization Services Emissions A Risk, But Legal

(Credit: Environmental Protection Agency)

The Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) is seeking state and federal help to study the health impacts of emissions from Sterilization Services but says the company is operating within its legal rights. 

The company uses ethylene oxide (EtO) in its South Memphis facility to sterilize medical equipment. The gas is odorless and colorless and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wasn’t aware emissions could raise cancer rates until 2016.

Now, the EPA says EtO emissions from the facility could pose a risk to those living in the neighborhood around it. The agency held public meetings in Memphis last year to warn the residents but said there was little they could do. While the EPA is working on new laws to reduce EtO emissions, companies like Sterilization Services will likely have up to three years to comply with it.

On Thursday, the SCHD said it is working with the EPA and the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) to educate and inform the residents around the facility at 2396 Florida Street. It has asked for a public health assessment and a health consultations from the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 

The department has also asked the TDH’s Cancer Registry to study the incidence of cancer around the facility. The review will determine cancer rates around the facility compared to those in other parts of Shelby County. Once complete, the study will be released to the public. 

The department will also meet with residents to help them understand health risks and find the health screening and treatment resources available to them. 

SCHD will update the Shelby County Commission on the situation next month.  

The department cannot, however, force the company to immediately reduce EtO emissions, it said Thursday. Sterilization Services now meets current federal, state, and local legal standards of emissions, the department said, and cannot be “legal standards higher than existing ones.” But the department said it is aware of the risks.  

“The people of South Memphis face inequitable health, social, and environmental conditions in comparison to many other parts of Shelby County,” said SCHD director Dr. Michelle Taylor. “Achieving environmental justice is a part of (SCHD’s) mission to promote, protect and improve the health of all in Shelby County.”

The statement on Sterilization Services from the SCHD comes after the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) urged action on the matter earlier this week in a letter on behalf of Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP). The letter says local laws allow the health department to act when air pollution creates an emergency situation and this situation is one, MCAP said.

“It has been six months since the (EPA) released updated information on the dangers of ethylene oxide to humans and almost four months since the EPA held public meetings in Memphis,” MCAP board president and co-founder KeShaun Pearson said in the letter. “Since then, the (SCHD) has yet to update the impacted community members about the status of Sterilization Services of Tennessee or engage with us in a meaningful way.

“South Memphis residents deserve to breathe clean air, and we demand immediate action from the (SCHD).”

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MLGW Stays With TVA but Rejects “Never-Ending” Contract

(Credit: TVA)

Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) rejected Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) 20-year rolling contract Wednesday morning but will continue to be a TVA customer “for the foreseeable future.” 

MLGW began evaluating its nearly 80-year relationship with TVA in 2018. The local utility company is TVA’s largest customer. Others (including Siemens) claimed MLGW could save between $130 million-$450 million each year if it left TVA.  

MLGW is not leaving TVA, however. It will remain with TVA “for the foreseeable future,” according to an MLGW statement issued after the board’s decision Wednesday morning. But it can more freely keep its options to other power suppliers open after voting down the contract.

The board members ultimately rejected TVA’s now-standard, 20-year rolling contract, which most of its other local power companies have signed, based mostly on the length of the term. Board chairman Mitch Graves said, simply, the 20-year deal was “too long of an agreement.”

TVA accentuated the positives of the move Wednesday, highlighting the fact that MLGW will remain with them for now. TVA said the decision “is a reinforcement of the longstanding relationship with TVA in delivering affordable, reliable, and clean energy to the people and communities across Memphis and Shelby County.”

“We are proud of our partnership with MLGW, and we are excited to move forward,” TVA Chief External Relations Officer Jeannette Mills said in a statement. “We believe the people of Memphis and Shelby County deserve a partner that cares about serving their needs and addressing real issues like energy burden and revitalization of the city’s core communities. Our continued partnership with MLGW provides the best option for making this happen.”

Other groups, like the Southern Environmental Law Center, saw the decision a little differently.

“Big news out of Memphis as the city’s utility rejects a restrictive, never-ending power supply contract with TVA, looking for more renewable energy sources and lower bills for residents,” the group tweeted after the meeting. 

Protect Our Aquifer tweeted this on Tuesday ahead of the board meeting: 

The group said it was at the hearing Wednesday to speak against the contract. 

Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP) called the move “another win for the people.”

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Environmental Groups Want More Time On MLGW Power Supply Decision

(Credit: TVA)

Environmental groups are asking Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) for more time on its power supply decision to allow for further review and public comment. 

MLGW staff recommended last week that the utility stay with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as its power provider. The recommendation came after local review on the decision, several studies on energy reliability and potential savings, and much noise made by environmental groups who say TVA is not doing enough on sustainable energy and that its contracts are too long. 

When MLGW announced the recommendation last week, it came with a vague, 30-day period for public comment on the move. Three groups — the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), Protect Our Aquifer (POA), and Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP) — asked the MLGW board commissioners for an additional month. 

The request would give another month for public comment, and another month after that for MLGW’s commissioners to review those comments. If the request is granted, a final vote on the power-supply decision would come no sooner than November 30th. 

”The [MLGW board of commissioners] must have adequate time to meaningfully consider public comment,” reads the letter issued Tuesday. “Otherwise, the board risks the appearance of merely rubber-stamping the staff recommendation. It is particularly important that the Board’s decision-making process be open and transparent because of the existing relationships between TVA and MLGW.”

MLGW has been a TVA customer for more than 80 years. MLGW is also TVA’s largest customer. 

Last week’s announcement of the MLGW staff recommendation was criticized by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) saying “we’re confident it’s not in the best interest of MLGW customers.” The group said the new 20-year contract, which has already been signed by numerous other TVA clients, would “lock the utility and its ratepayers into a forever contract.” The current contract with TVA is up every five years. 

“We disagree with the recommendation MLGW staff presented to the MLGW Board of Commissioners and look forward to finally being able to see the responses to the MLGW power-supply proposal,” said Dr. Steven Smith, SACE executive director. “We are concerned that today’s presentation was highly skewed and lacked an appropriate balance of risk and benefits. We look forward to reviewing the underlying data that these assumptions were built on.”

Other providers, SACE said, could offer offer longer-term economic and environmental benefits. These benefits could also greatly increase now, SACE said, after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. SACE said the new law — with its billions in spending for environmental projects — could “greatly amplify alternative portfolios’ estimated savings and energy resiliency benefits” that could “be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Memphis if MLGW is not restricted by TVA’s contract requirements.”

As for environmental issues, TVA said the day before MLGW’s announcement last week that it plans to be 80 percent carbon free by 2035 and completely carbon free by 2050. TVA’s timeline does not match that of President Joe Biden, who wants a carbon free power grid by 2035. TVA says it must move slower to ensure reliability. 

TVA has said that more than half of its energy sources are carbon free and not “not affected by fuel price volatility.” The TVA board voted last week to keep its base electric rate steady through its next fiscal year. But many Memphians were shocked this summer as high natural gas prices from TVA made for much higher MLGW bills. 

MLGW staffers said if the utility stayed with TVA, customers would save about $32 a year on their electric bills. Overall, MLGW said the new contract with TVA “demonstrates the greatest value and least risk.” They said the move would save MLGW $125 million over the next five years and $944 million over the next 25 years. 

The three groups asking for more time for board members to review the possible TVA move asked for more transparency in the vote as well. They said the long relationship between TVA and MLGW is yet another reason for board members to have a close look at all the offers not he table. 

“TVA is MLGW’s current power provider, and the utilities’ decades-long relationship gives TVA unique access to MLGW and its customers,” reads the letter. “Indeed, recent news reports reveal that TVA spent the past several years lobbying suburban governments served by MLGW to support the federal utility’s bid. 

“TVA is also MLGW’s largest water customer, giving the federal utility another advantage in this decision-making process and adding another reason why it is important that the board carefully evaluate independent, third-party perspectives shared during the public comment period.”

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Environmentalists Applaud Passage of Inflation Reduction Act

The bill’s approval surprised many. (Photo: Quick PS | Unsplash)

Last week Congress approved the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. The bill does a lot of things, but environmentalists applauded its $350 billion package to address climate change and promote clean energy investments. Some said the bill has the potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions across the nation by 40 percent by 2030. Here’s what some of those environmental advocates had to say about it.

“Change is coming. This bill is a historic commitment by the United States to regain a leadership position not only in addressing climate disruption but also in leading the clean energy technology revolution that is being unleashed.

While no single entity can take credit for the roller-coaster ride that led to the Senate [and the House later] passing this significant legislation, much credit must be given to the voters in Georgia. By electing not one, but two climate-focused Senate leaders in a runoff election in early 2021, these two Southern senators were absolutely necessary for creating this moment in history and shepherding the bill through the political tightrope in the Senate.”

— Stephen Smith (writing before the House passed the bill)
Executive Director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

“In almost every Climate Reality training, I include a quote from the great American poet Wallace Stevens, who wrote: ‘After the final no there comes a yes / and on that yes the future world depends.’

Today, in Congress, there came a historic yes, with the House voting to follow the Senate and pass the Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate bill the U.S. has ever seen. It is no great exaggeration to say that on this ‘yes’ our future world depends.

To help shape the climate measures that are included in this bill, our Climate Reality leaders and chapters held more than 150 meetings with legislators. Our friends and supporters contacted their representatives and policy-makers over 180,000 times. All with one simple message: Go big. Go bold. Act now. Yes, yes, yes.

There is much to celebrate. The IRA will supercharge the just transition to clean energy that is already underway across the country, transforming our economy while creating an estimated 1.5 million jobs and cutting costs for working families. Critically, the bill invests $60 billion in frontline communities hit hardest by fossil fuel pollution and the climate crisis, bringing clean air, good jobs, and better opportunities to those who have been subject to generations of environmental injustice.

The impact of this bill will ripple across continents. By putting the U.S. on the path to cutting global warming pollution 40 percent by 2030, the IRA helps keep the Paris Agreement alive and demonstrates to the world that we are committed to climate action for the long-term.

But for all the progress we will achieve through the IRA, there are provisions that require urgent attention and action. Fossil fuel interests forced painful concessions in negotiations, requiring the government to offer new areas for drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as more oil and gas leasing on our public lands. Lawmakers are poised to take additional steps that would fast-track pipelines that communities — and Climate Reality leaders — have fought for years to block.”

— Al Gore
Founder and Chairman, The Climate Reality Project

“The historic passage of the Inflation Reduction Act makes renewable energy — which was already affordable and, in many cases, cheaper than gas — even more cost-effective. Even before today’s momentous vote, an independent study found that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) would save billions by replacing its aging, dirty coal plants with clean energy as opposed to gas.

Families across the Valley are seeing higher power bills this summer due to TVA’s over-reliance on fossil fuels. It should be a no-brainer for TVA to take advantage of this groundbreaking legislation by scrapping plans to recklessly spend billions on new gas plants and invest in clean energy sources instead.”

— Amanda Garcia
Tennessee Office Director, Southern Environmental Law Center

“The Inflation Reduction Act is by far the most consequential legislation for climate action that has ever passed. I think it will take some time to be able to process the scale and positive effects this will have on our collective future.

But the fight is not over, we’ll need to keep up momentum across the country and here in the Southeast. Paired with more federal, state, and local actions, we will be more equipped to face the most existential threat of our time: climate change.”

— Maggie Shober
Research Director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

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MLGW Again Declines To Name Power Bidders

Courtesy: Southern Environmental Law Center

Several Memphis environmental groups want to know what firms are bidding to supply the city’s electricity, but Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) said (again) they don’t have to share the information and won’t until the time is right. 

MLGW is in the midst of picking a power provider, either staying with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) or selecting a new company. The local utility is now the largest customer of the TVA and has been with the authority for more than 80 years. The idea to move away from TVA has been around for a long time, but last year MLGW formally began a process to possibly find other suppliers with a request for proposals.   

Bids came back from nearly 20 companies, but when Sam Hardiman, a Commercial Appeal reporter, asked for company names earlier this year, MLGW declined to provide them, citing state law that says MLGW can keep the company names and their proposals secret.

The laws in question say MLGW can hold the records until recommendations for awarding the contract are submitted by staff to the MLGW board. MLGW said Friday it would adhere to that process.

But several Memphis groups asked MLGW to see the proposals again this week. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) asked for the records in a Thursday letter to MLGW on behalf of the Sierra Club, Memphis Community Against Pollution, and Protect Our Aquifer, known collectively in the letter as “Community Groups.” The decision is a big one, the letter says, and the public should know who is involved. 

 ”Community Groups — and the Memphis community generally — lack access to crucially important information related to the more than 20 bids MLGW has received in response to the [requests for proposals]. Shutting the community out of the process is profoundly concerning in light of the significance of MLGW’s impending decision.”

In a Friday statement, MLGW again refused to provide that information.

”In accordance with state law and MLGW policy, the proposals received in response to those [requests for proposals] “shall not be open for public inspection’ until notices of an intent to award are issued,” the utility said. “Once recommendations for award are submitted by MLGW staff to the MLGW Board regarding an RFP, all proposals submitted in response to that RFP will be available to the public for inspection, except to the extent that any information included in those proposals is protected in accordance with federal and state law for proprietary and system security proposes. 

”Members of the public will have further opportunities to provide comments and input as recommendations are considered by the MLGW Board and the Memphis City Council.”

MLGW said public input was “instrumental” in completing its integrated resource plan to decide what sources of power it wanted to use. SELC’s letter agreed and urged that MLGW be as transparent as possible in its current proposal process.

The SELC was concerned that by keeping the other contenders secret, TVA’s incumbent status would be given an “unfair advantage” with the public. It noted that group members have received emails from TVA touting its proposal, read multiple news stories about it, and even saw ”TVA’s high-visibility co-sponsorship with MLGW to provide drinking water at the Beale Street Music Festival.”  

SELC asked MLGW to make a decision on sharing the records within a week. 

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Environmental Groups Oppose Pipeline Project

CREDIT: Corey Owens/Greater Memphis Chamber

Corey Owens/Greater Memphis Chamber

A diagram shows the layer of aquifers underneath Memphis.

Environmental advocates urged against a crude oil pipeline that they say will cut through several Black neighborhoods and could endanger drinking water.

Two companies began surveying here last year for a project to build a 49-mile pipeline from Memphis to Marshall County, Mississippi to connect to other crude-oil pipelines in the area. Plains All American Pipeline and Valero hope to begin work next year on the new Byhalia Connection Pipeline to bring more crude oil through Memphis to other places in the U.S.

A website for the project said the Byhalia Connection project is in the “pre-construction and easement acquisition phase of the project. We’re targeting to start construction in 2021 and be in service approximately nine months later.”

The plan was been questioned by Shelby County Schools (SCS), property owners along the proposed route, and by protestors last week.

On Friday, four local environmental groups asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny the federal permit for the pipeline. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), Protect Our Aquifer, Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP) argued the “pipeline that would cut through several Black communities and the municipal wellfield that provides their drinking water, which is drawn from the Memphis Sand Aquifer.”
byhaliaconnection.com

The proposed Byhalia Connection would run through Black communities and across drinking water intake wells.

”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 George Nolan, SELC senior attorney. “The nationwide permit the companies have applied for under the Clean Water Act states in very plain language that this type of permit does not allow for the construction of pipelines near drinking-water intakes, like the municipal well field it will run through.
[pullquote-1-center] ”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.”

The groups argue that the pipeline would cut through many Black communities in southwest Memphis, including the Boxtown neighborhood. They claim that neighborhood is already “burdened” by dozens of industrial facilities. The area is home to the Valero oil refinery, Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) shuttered, coal-burning Allen Fossil Plant, TVA’s gas-powered plant, and more.

“This resilient community, where many of our loved ones live and our ancestor’s bones rest, is being treated this way because of economic racism and environmental racism,” said Justin J. Pearson, a lead organizer of Memphis Community Against the Pipeline. “We care about the water that we drink, the land we live on, and the air we breathe, but too often our lives are deemed expendable by our own elected officials and company’s insatiable quest to profit off our very lives.”
[pullquote-2-center]
Southern Environmental Law Center

This image shows how the pipeline would cut through a drinking-water well field in southwest Memphis.

The groups say that because the pipeline would cross wetlands and streams, it would have to get a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the Clean Water Act. While the companies are trying to get a permit, they’re asking for the wrong one, according to the groups, because of the pipeline’s proximity to a drinking water intake source.

The pipeline would cut through a drinking-water well field in southwest Memphis, operated by Memphis Light, Gas & Water. The wells there draw water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the famously clean source of the city’s drinking water. The wells in southwest Memphis supply drinking water to the primarily Black communities there.

“We think the Corps should consider the risks to our drinking water plus the environmental injustices this pipeline poses to residents,” said Jim Kovarik, Executive Director of Protect Our Aquifer. “This area of the Memphis Sand Aquifer is known to be vulnerable to contamination due to holes in its protective clay layer. In fact, there is a known breach in the Davis Well Field, near the pumping station. On top of that, the route is also near an earthquake fault line known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone. This is the wrong place for a pipeline.”

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County Health Department Limits TVA’s Use of Aquifer Wells

CREDIT: USGS

USGS

Groundwater discharge from an aquifer test at the Tennessee Valley Authority Allen Combined Cycle Plant in October.


The Shelby County Health Department placed rules on how the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) uses five wells at its Allen natural gas plant this week.

The health department prohibited TVA from using the wells, which the utility previously committed to not using, except in three circumstances:

• Sampling for contaminants or studying the connection of the shallow and deep aquifers. Approval for the studies must be granted by the Tennessee Department of Conservation.


• Using the plant for water in an emergency when Memphis Light, Gas & Water cannot provide it. This is to be done only to avoid “serious damage or disruption to the regional power grid.”

•

Limited Maintenance of up to 30 minutes each quarter.


These modified permits are in response to a December request to limit or prohibit TVA’s use of the wells by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) on behalf of Protect Our Aquifer and the Sierra Club in order to avoid contamination of Memphis’ drinking water source.

The health department previously gave TVA permits to drill five wells into the Memphis Sand Aquifer in order to pump about 3.5 million gallons of water to cool its energy plant here.

After tests found high levels of arsenic and lead at the site, TVA said it would not use the wells until after a state investigation into groundwater contamination is completed.

A coal ash pond at TVA’s Allen Fossil Plant.

The five wells in question are housed in the Allen Combined Cycle Plant, which sits within a half-mile of a leaking coal ash pond operated by TVA. The ash pond is the center of ongoing state and federal investigations into groundwater contaminants, including arsenic and lead. Studies have suggested that use of the wells could put the Memphis Sand Aquifer at greater risk of contamination from the coal ash pond.

Research done by the University of Memphis and the U.S. Geological Survey last year showed that the coal ash pond is connected to the Memphis Sand Aquifer through gaps in the aquifer’s protective clay layers. The study also found that this connection could cause the contaminated groundwater to be pulled into the drinking water source when water is pumped from the wells.

Amanda Garcia, the senior attorney for SELC, said TVA should have never asked for the permits to use the wells, and that “we’re pleased to see that the county acknowledged, in a letter, that TVA would be denied permits to drill the wells if they had applied today.”

She added that the rules placed on utility’s usage demonstrates “how serious the pollution risk is to the county’s drinking water source.”

Ward Archer, president of Protect Our Aquifer, agreed, saying the county made the right decision in placing restrictions on TVA’s well use.

“Last year, the Shelby County Groundwater Control Board made the first step to better protect the Memphis Sand Aquifer by adopting stronger rules for obtaining permits and operating wells that pull from the Memphis Sand.

“However, we still need better local groundwater protections across the area and we hope Shelby County continues to work to conserve our most precious natural resource.”