Statement on the Proposed Route of the Plains Southcap Pipeline

Statement on the Proposed Route of the Plains Southcap Pipeline

Partners for Environmental Progress (PEP) urges Plains Southcap to relocate the route of their oil pipeline to outside of the Big Creek Lake watershed. The current route, parallel to and crossing Hamilton Creek which is a primary feeder to Big Creek Lake, poses an unnecessary threat to Mobile County’s drinking water supply.

According to public records, the high‐capacity, 24 inch pipeline could move more than 150,000 barrels of oil per day through its 45 miles of pipe. A leak or rupture could result in hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil headed towards the water supply. While PEP does not take a position on the building of an oil pipeline from Ten Mile Terminal in Mobile to the Chevron Oil Refinery in Pascagoula, we firmly believe that it should not pose any risk to the drinking water supply of Mobile County residents.

In the absence of a fully protective and permitted containment system acceptable to all the parties, we support the efforts of MAWSS and the Mobile County Commission to protect our drinking water supply by encouraging Plains Southcap to relocate the pipeline route to outside of the Big Creek Lake watershed.

PEP is coalition of business and education leaders who share a vision of applying science‐based environmental best practices to business and community issues. PEP’s 200 plus members, employing more than 22,000 local citizens endorse our guiding principle of promoting business growth while preserving the environment and overall quality of life along the Gulf Coast.