Environmental group outlines lawsuit over gas pipeline going through the Black Belt

The Southern Environmental Law Center has outlined why it is suing two federal agencies over a methane gas pipeline that is being buried through the heart of the Black Belt.

The Black Belt News Network has covered the pipeline and the lawsuit from the beginning. SELC says it has sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for allowing companies to sidestep environmental laws when constructing the pipeline.

The lawsuit includes South System Expansion 4, a $3 billion project that calls for burying about 290 miles of natural gas pipeline from Clarke County, Mississippi east to Augusta, Georgia. The pipeline, which will mostly be buried alongside existing natural gas pipelines, will pass through Elmore, Autauga, Dallas, Perry, Marengo and Sumter counties, according to the application from Southern Natural Gas Co.

In its lawsuit, SELC is representing Blackbelt Women Rising, Alabama Rivers Alliance, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Energy Alabama, Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, Mississippi Rising Coalition, Ogeechee Riverkeeper, Savannah Riverkeeper, and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

The South System Expansion 4 project is being constructed by Southern Natural Gas, which is equally owned by subsidiaries of Houston-based energy company Kinder Morgan, and Southern Company, which owns Alabama Power Co., and Elba Express Company, a Kinder Morgan subsidiary.