Ranchers Sue To Stop Gasoline
Pipeline From Gulf To El Paso

EL PASO, Texas —(AP)— Eight ranchers have sued to stop construction on a trans-Texas pipeline that would carry gasoline from the Gulf Coast to El Paso until an environmental impact study can be conducted.

The ranchers either own or live on land in Kimble County that is crossed by an existing line that will be incorporated into the project by Dallas-based Longhorn Partners Pipeline.

"I believe that using an old pipeline designed and built 50 years ago to bring crude oil from West Texas to Houston to pump refine gasoline the other direction puts my land and my drinking water in danger," said Ethel Spiller, one of the ranchers.

The plaintiffs have asked a federal judge in Austin for an emergency injunction and to order the environmental impact study be done before the pipeline is completed.

Carter Montgomery, Longhorn's president and chief executive, said he had not seen the lawsuit and couldn't say what the company's response might be.

If the environmental study must be done, "I don't see it killing the project," he said.

But he said a study would delay getting gasoline to consumers seeking relief from expensive gasoline in El Paso, which consistently has some of the highest prices in the region.

The pipeline will use a 400-mile section of existing pipeline, running from Houston to the Midland area, which carried oil from West Texas to Houston until 1995.

Another 250-mile section running from around Midland to El Paso is now under construction. Barring delays, the pipeline is expected to be operational by year's end.