Hi Folks, August 08/99

Congratulations to everyone who has worked hard against Colonial's planned pipeline expansion from Talledaga to Nashville.
Your voices and actions did make a difference regardless of what Colonial says.

They really didn't want to take everyone to court to evoke Eminent Domain. They also didn't want to go through the lengthy permitting process that would have bogged them down with an EIS for at least a year.
The thought of holding more public meetings in the various towns to hear more negative public comment also led to their decison to back down. Will they try again, probally, but we will organize once again to show them when concerned citizens unite they can take on a corporate giant and win.

Where does this leave our fuel needs?

For now their seems to be adequate supplies but to think we can go on gas guzzling as usual is short-sighted.
Here is our golden opportunity to take fuel conservation seriously. It's time to put pressue on the Bush administration to call for higher gas mileage standards for SUV's.
It is also time to wean away from these gas hogs and start driving cars more fuel efficient cars.

Archive & Legacy:

Page created August 2001 to fight against Colonial Pipeline

Gurley community web site since 1997

Fight Colonial Pipeline in Tennessee and Alabama The fight against Colonial Pipeline continues. Visitors from California and Tennessee need information and support. Proposed Route Consideration - See map below.

Nationwide actions say NO

To

COLONIAL PIPELINE

Stop Colonial Pipeline Fund: The Alabama Environmental Council has set up a legal fund to raise money so we can hire Frank Fly, an attorney who has succesfully fought Colonial and won. You can send the checks to Lynn Leach 307 Shooting Star Tr. Gurley AL 35748

Fight Colonial Pipeline in Tennessee and Alabama

I own a multi-generation farm that is in both Rutherford and Bedford counties, Tennessee. We have not cut any trees from the woods since W.W.II. We have about 30 head of cattle, which keep the bushes down and pay for the taxes. The wildlife runs free. We have ponds, and old cabins that belonged to my great uncles born in the 1800's. There is a graveyard there from the 20's undisturbed. I planned to move there and would have a house where the proposed pipeline is to go, except I have had cancer in the past, and I couldn't get reasonable health coverage in Tenn. I will come when insurance is available. I plan to leave this land/dream-house to my children and grandchildren.

Colonial Pipeline Company proposes a 40 foot easement with a 20inch pipeline, and they talk in their brochure about eminent domain. They are proposing to go through the middle of four of my family members' farms. I understand they have a bad reputation for spills and for having to be sued to clean up. The Land they want to go through is watershed registered with the EPA: Harpeth, Duck and Stones, I believe. There are many underground caves, sinkholes and wetlands. Occasionally there have been fish in the wells. The water rises out of sinkholes and a stream runs in the rainy season. I believe polluting the ground water will cause pollutants to travel for many miles. Other states run gasoline lines along highways and not through the middle of peoples' farms, in the yards of homes belonging to the elderly and to churches, and over underground caves where water runs for miles.

I don't want to build my family dream home next to this pipeline to live in constant danger. I don't want Colonial to take out the trees that my father climbed when he was a boy. They could have been cut and sold to give the family necessities, but they were saved. I don't want the fields he plowed (where he received 2 broken ribs when a rock hit him, thrown back by the plow) to be disturbed with blasting, bulldozers, maintenance roads and pumping stations.

Colonial already has an old line from Chattanooga to Nashville. Let them run a new one along the old one. Their reputation is so bad, they were stopped in 1999 from doing just that. If they have improved so much, let them try again. There are some things more important than corporate profits. This company doesn't deserve to take those precious rights from the people who stand to gain nothing from this line, except loss of property value and freedom to live out their hard work and dreams. We have plenty of pipelines in California, yet we have some of the highest gasoline prices in the country.

When Pipelines do have an accident and they will (pipelines corrode especially in wet limestone), they will occupy the land for years while cleaning up, and repay the land owner nothing. Lawsuits against large corporations are problematic and expensive for a single landowner.

In California, there are agencies that forces offending company to clean up (This does not however, provide any compensation to the landowner during clean-up). Tennessee needs to protect its people from companies like this one, who have no regard for the environment or the individuals they will ruin. In some instances, they will completely destroy the livelihood of farms, not to mention the property values.

What if you were to get a gasoline pipeline and pumping station in the middle of your retirement nest egg and family heritage, how would you feel about your country? My father's family donated 6 men/brothers to fight in W.W.II. One died. Now four family members will have their farms crossed in the middle by this line and two others will have it dangerously close. What a reward for fighting for freedom and the right to home and land.

Other gasoline companies don't have pipelines and they manage to deliver. There are other ways to make life go on with out destroying the livelihood and land heritage of many farmers and endangering the water supply for hundreds of miles. Does your town have enough fire fighting power to fight a fire from an explosion of thousands of gallons of gasoline?

Lets us work towards saving the planet for our children from an ever-increasing threat of disease, pestilence and extreme weather from a warming planet and smog. Please look into the reputation and the practices of this company and protect the small/poor towns and farmers. They are the most precious gift this country has left. They fought, they worked hard and they take care of themselves in their old age. They pay their debts and taxes. They are the best

My heart belongs to the land over which I walked with my Father and his Father and my children and their children. I hear their laughter and song through the trees we used to climb. The fields cry out to the sweat and tears of the plow and horse and rejoice in the harvest.

Jane : ejaner2002@yahoo.com