Gun Barrel City is the first Cedar Creek Lake community to officially object to any plans to reopen ExxonMobil's failed Pegasus Pipeline for the transportation of diluted tar sands bitumen. Mayor Paul Eaton said he hopes that other communities on the lake will join Gun Barrel City in speaking out against the pipeline being reopened. "There needs to be good action," Eaton said. "I've been aware of this for a long time. Something needs to happen. An old pipeline can only last so long." Gun Barrel City officials recently wrote a letter in support of efforts by the State of Arkansas and the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to keep the 65-year-old, 850-mile long pipeline shut down. Texas State Rep. Lance Gooden, whose District 4 seat includes representation of Cedar Creek Lake, confirmed recently he has asked for a meeting with ExxonMobil officials. The legislator said he will advocate against the reopening of the pipeline. The pipeline, which was built in 1948 and runs through Cedar Creek Lake, ruptured in Mayflower, Ark. on March 29. The break, that was attributed to a system failure, poured 200,000 gallons of diluted tar sands bitumen into the small town that is on Lake Conway. The fishing lake remains contaminated with only 85,000 gallons of the hazardous material recovered so far. ExxonMobil "repurposed" the pipeline in 2006, reversing its flow to transport diluted tar sands bitumen through the pipeline rather than diesel oil for which it was built. The pipeline runs from Illinois, passing through Corsicana, to a Texas refinery in Nederland. Tar sands is an asphalt-like material, contains at least seven chemicals known to be hazardous to human health, and it is highly flammable, according to the Safe Community Alliance. The material is mined in Canada to recover oil from it. The pipeline runs through the communities of Kemp, Mabank, Gun Barrel City and Seven Points, including a path under the lake and through Tom Finley Park. A similar spill to the one in Arkansas occurred in 2010 in Michigan when a pipeline owned by Embridge ruptured, spilling 840,000 gallons of diluted tar sands bitumen into the Kalamazoo River. The river remains contaminated three years later, according to environmentalists. Public safety activists claim reversing the flow in an old pipeline that was not constructed for the transportation of tar sands products increases pressure and causes the ruptures.