Murphy Puts Forward Nominees for Highlands & Pinelands- Senate Needs to Act

Highlands and Pinelands Nominee Information Attached

Governor Murphy has made re-nominations for the Pinelands Commission and Highlands Council for the state of New Jersey. The following nominations have been made for the Pinelands Commission, Jennifer M. Coffey, of Hamilton, to replace The Honorable Gary Quinn, Robert Jackson, of Villas, to replace D’Arcy Rohan Green, Theresa I. Lettman, of Manchester, to replace Candace McKee Ashmun, Edward Lloyd, Esq., of South Orange, and Jessica Rittler Sanchez, Ph.D., of Tabernacle, to replace Robert Barr. For the Highlands Council, William S. Kibler, of Califon, to replace Michael Tfank, Dr. Daniel J. Van Abs, of Princeton, to replace Tracy Carluccio and Wynnie-Fred Victor-Hinds, of Newark, to replace Richard Vohden.

“It is critically important that Governor Murphy has moved forward with nominations to the Highlands Council and Pinelands Commission. These are very important boards that will help govern and protect some of the most environmentally sensitive areas of New Jersey. These boards however are still dominated by Christie’s appointees who were put there to weaken protections. It is important that the Governor and Senate President Sweeney get these nominations through as quickly as possible. Failure to do will cause devastating impacts to Pinelands and Highlands,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “In the Highlands there are threats to the drinking water for 6 million people from climate change, toxic sites and overdevelopment. In the Pinelands, there are fossil fuel projects like the SRL Pipeline and SJ Gas pipeline that would destroy the critical ecosystem and impact the drinking water for millions of people. That is why it is critical to have leaders on these boards to protect these vital areas.”

The Pinelands is the largest open space on the eastern seaboard and recognized for its biodiversity by the United Nations. When the Pinelands Act was passed forty years ago, one of the major reasons was to prevent pipelines coming through to connect offshore oil to refineries in south Jersey. There are two pipelines that would cut through the Pinelands, the SJ Gas and NJNG’s Southern Reliability Link (SRL).

“We need to move forward with Murphy’s Pinelands nominees and replace Wittenberg, especially with the threat of climate change and fossil fuel projects. Because of the failure to get these Pineland nominations through the Senate, we were not able to get a stay on the SRL Pipeline and the SJ Gas can still move forward. The SRL pipeline will cause irreparable harm to the environment and become an economic burden to taxpayers who will have to pay to remove it. The SJ Gas pipeline can still move forward after the Commission recently voted down a resolution that would put a stay on it,” said Tittel. “The Pinelands is the country’s first National Reserve and holds 17 trillion gallons of water in its aquifer. There are species found there nowhere else in the world, it is an ecological preserve that must be protected.  There is nothing like it in the world.”

According to the Fish &Wildlife Service, the Highlands is part of a rugged corridor of ridges and valleys spanning four states and contain the oldest rocks in New Jersey, 1.3 billion years old. It supplies drinking water for over half of the State’s population from only 13 percent of its land are. The Highlands include over 110,000 acres of productive farmland. It also provides outdoor recreation at over 150 square miles of State land and two National Wildlife Refuges.

“The Highlands Council need to move forward with a Regional Master Plan and update climate change in the way they do business. They need to move forward with appropriate growth and development and utilize its historic and eco-tourism potential. The council cannot move forward on these things because the current appointments are blocking them. DEP is still allowing for a sewer plant to be built in the Highlands, logging in Sparta Mountain, and compromising on a cleanup plan at the Ringwood Superfund site that will contaminate areas at Ringwood State Park.  Given the conditions happening to our lakes in the Highlands like Greenwood Lake and Lake Hopatcong because of warmer weather and climate change, we need leaders who can protect this area from climate change,”said Tittel.”The Highlands water is the fuel that runs New Jersey’s economic engine and it is critical that it is protected. The water from the Highlands will help drive New Jersey’s three largest businesses, pharmaceuticals, chemical, and food processing and tourism. Its water makes everything from M&M’s to Tylenol, from Budweiser to cutting edge medicines.”

In order for Governor Murphy nominations to be appointed, they need to be voted on in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Last year, these same really good people were nominated but never got a hearing. This year, it has to be done. Governor Murphy must put pressure on Senator Sweeney and the Senate Judiciary Committee so that the nominees can have a hearing and the Senators can sign off on them. The future of these boards depend on it. We can’t keep delaying. The Highlands is our Yellowstone where more people come to recreate every year than in Yosemite, and Pinelands is the largest open space on the eastern seaboard and recognized for its biodiversity by the United Nations. We need leaders who can protect these areas, and we need them now,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.