A proposed 49-mile pipeline that had been designed to link to major pipelines in Tennessee has been cancelled. The pipeline project known as the Byhalia Connection was a joint venture by Valero and Plains All American Pipeline. The Byhalia Connection would have linked the east-west Diamond Pipeline through the Valero refinery in Memphis to the north-south Capline Pipeline near Byhalia, Mississippi. The Capline, which has transported crude oil from a Louisiana port on the Gulf of Mexico north to the Midwest, is being reversed to deliver oil south through Mississippi to refineries and export terminals on the Gulf.

There are several reasons why the project had failed to obtain the required development permits. In part it was due to the need for such a pipeline, given lower than expect American output, during the Covid crisis. Also, significant opposition from the local communities who feared that potential leaks could damage the regions fresh water supplies, which meet the needs of one million customers.

Environmentalists and activists claimed victory Saturday after a company cancelled plans to build an oil pipeline through southwest Tennessee and north Mississippi, and over an aquifer that provides drinking water to one million people. Opposition was especially strong in black suburbs of Memphis, who argued that the pipeline route avoided prosperous areas, and was a form of environmental racism This is defined as the practice of placing toxic factories, landfills and other polluters in minority neighbourhoods and indigenous areas, where voiceless residents only realize the danger after people get sick.