Two vacant lots on Weaver Road about to be bought as part of the proposed Byhalia Connection pipeline in southwest Memphis came out of a county list of 26 properties approved to be sold for delinquent property taxes.

Shelby County commissioners on Monday, Feb. 8, sent the 5095 and 5273 Weaver Road properties back to its committee system for more discussion before scheduling a vote by the full commission for March at the earliest.

Pipeline’s route faces increased challenges

In the process, the hold on those properties revealed what could be a father-son difference of opinion on the City Council and County Commission.

Commissioner Tami Sawyer moved to pull the properties, which was done without objection, citing nine lawsuits in Circuit Court filed by property owners against Plains All American Pipeline, the company building the pipeline.

The lawsuits contest any effort to force the owners to sell easements to make way for the pipeline.

“We have an inbox full of messages from people in the community who are concerned about the sale of these properties,” Sawyer said. “We should wait until this goes through the legal process it is currently going through.”

While he didn’t object to the delay, commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. scolded organizers of opposition to the pipeline’s path through a residential area bordering the Valero refinery.

“It is unfortunate that a group of individuals who need a civics lesson have hijacked an item,” he said.

Ford said he is neutral on the pipeline, which has drawn high-profile support as well as opposition.

Crude oil pipeline opponents seek broader review

Meanwhile, Ford’s father, City Council member Edmund Ford Sr., is co-sponsor of a pending council resolution opposing the pipeline project that the council will discuss again next week.

“This is an issue we want to try to clear up today,” the elder Ford said last week during council committee discussions. “I don’t want to be another Flint, Michigan.”

The city of Flint’s water supply had high and damaging levels of lead in its drinking water after city officials bypassed a key element in its water processing system that led to corrosion of sediment from lead pipes that got into the city’s water.

“Flint, Michigan, was Black people and my district is Black people,” Ford Sr. told fellow City Council members. “That ain’t going to happen. I have issues. They always want to put it on us.”

South Memphis residents voice opposition to Byhalia Connection

The younger Ford says the pipeline is a matter of federal and state permits, and not any action by the commission or the council. He’s also said more than 90% of landowners have already agreed to easements for the pipeline on their property.

“If they wanted the permits from the federal government to be stopped, a lukewarm letter from Congressman Steve Cohen is not enough,” Ford Jr. said.

Cohen expressed his concerns in writing to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a Jan. 8 letter that seeks more information on what effect on oil spill from the pipeline could have on the Memphis Sands aquifer that is the city’s water source.

The pipeline is shaping up to be a successor to the battle over water wells for the $1 billion Tennessee Valley Authority power generating plant, also located in southwest Memphis.

TVA drilled new wells that environmental groups, some formed at the outset of the controversy, contended could contaminate the aquifer beyond coal ash from the old coal-fired plant nearby that showed up in some water samples.

Byhalia Connection pipeline plan sparks intense reactions

Ultimately, TVA abandoned its new wells and opted to buy water for operating the natural gas plant from Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division’s existing system of wells.

The TVA controversy led to funding for an effort to better map the aquifer and possible breaches in the clay layers above the sands.

Ford Jr. was dismissive of efforts by critics of the pipeline so far.

“When these folks that have agendas decide to come and pick on one of us, they need a civics lesson,” he said. “I think it’s all an agenda.”