TAR SANDS OIL MOBILE
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings |
With all the talk about tar sands oil coming to Mobile Alabama and the lack of current information about the pipeline leading from Pascagoula Miss to the Downtown Mobile terminals to be built there I felt the need to expose it for what it is.
The pipeline crosses the Big Creek Lake basin where Mobile gets it's drinking water. In fact this oil pipeline crosses within less than 1/2 mile from the intake pump for the drinking water of thousands of Mobile residents.
The new storage tanks will be located less than 1/4 mile from a densely populated housing project and just over 500 feet from the head of Royal Street in Downtown Mobile
Not only is this an environmental nightmare, it is also a huge environmental injustice for the people directly impacted by the path. Politicians will tell you that the people in the corridor sold their right of way (ROW) willingly. That is not quite all of the truth. Many people were forced to sell under the threat of takings through imminent domain. (Sell it or we take it)
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings | | | |
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As we flew from Pascagoula to Mobile I was surprised to see how many wetlands were being impacted. In the event of a rupture this will present a nightmare to contain.
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings |
One thing sticks out like a sore thumb and that is the crossing of Mobile Alabama's drinking water source at Big Creek Lake. It actually crosses the existing pipeline carrying water to Mobile!
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings |
We flew over the 10 Mile Storage facility owned by Plains All American. It was evident from all of the new construction that they anticipate the expansion will be approved. Why not, our politicians seem to think that profits for industry should always outweigh people, health and safety!
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings |
Leaving the 10 Mile facility we flew Southeast toward Mobile. Once again the close proximity to residents stood out prominently. I could see children's swing sets, yard equipment, horses, cows, and peoples front doors within only a few feet from the pipeline and the potential disaster looming there.
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings |
As we entered the Downtown area of Mobile Tom pointed out where the new storage tanks would be built. They will lie only about 1,000 feet from a densely populated housing project and only about 500 feet from Royal Street. (distances taken from Google Earth)
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings |
Directly across the river is where ARC wants to expand their holding tanks and install a subsurface pipeline under the Mobile River connecting the new tanks at the rail head and the expanded tank farm on Old Spanish Trail (Google)
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings | |
We flew up 3 mile Creek to the ARC Saraland site. Here railroad cars are brought to load trucks with oil reported to be tar sands oil. From the photos it was clear to see that there were already problems with the site.
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings |
These tank trucks are leaking badly and appear to have been doing so for some time. The trucks can be seen in Google Earth as early as Jan. 2012.
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings |
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| Photo by John L. Wathen, Pilot Tom Hutchings |
Close up shots of the train cars here revealed the same numbering sequence as ones also seen in Downtown Mobile belonging to Canada National Railroad.
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| ARC Saraland |
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| Downtown Mobile |
People living close to and impacted by this project are not being heard. Lands have been taken by greedy oil mongers through good old boy politics. That needs to be exposed and shown to the elected powers that have backed this play for profit. Any politician who supports such a recipe for disaster needs to be replaced at the next election. If such a pipeline is built, it certainly needs to take a different path considering the health and safety of ALL impacted residents.
There are simply too many unknowns and misinformation being released that say this is OK. I call on every group that has any environmental stake in this to examine it for what it's worth and denounce this as a bad idea.
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| Give them a call and express yourself! |
Below is a video I created to expose the entire route of the pipeline and what I consider important issues associated with it. For more information concerning the pipeline and it's impacts to residents of Alabama and Mississippi, contact
