Sierra Club Asks Pinelands Commission to Delay Meeting and SRL Pipeline Vote

The New Jersey Sierra Club has requested that the Pinelands Commission hold a public hearing on the Executive Director’s report and draft resolution approving the installation and operation of the Southern Reliability Link (SRL) pipeline. We are asking them to do so based on the Commission’s own rules and that there are multiple disagreements and errors in the report. In August, the Pinelands Commission released their agenda and packet for their upcoming meeting and in it includes Executive Director Nancy Wittenberg’s staff recommendation for approval for the SRL. The New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) owned pipeline would pass through the Pinelands in its route from Chesterfield to Manchester. The Sierra Club is opposed to this pipeline project that will have no benefits to the region but will instead cause environmental damage to a sensitive ecosystem already battling pipelines and development on multiple fronts.

“We are asking the Pinelands Commission to act on behalf of the people and not the gas companies by rubberstamping the Southern Reliability Link Pipeline. Instead of pushing through this pipeline with a report full of errors and misleading information, the public deserves a hearing to raise questions and concerns. Since the report is as controversial as the application, the public should be able to express disagreements on statements in the report. As per the Pinelands Commission’s own resolution, we believe there should not be a vote on the application this week,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “The Pinelands Commission must do their job and protect the Pinelands. Given the hundreds of people that have come out to previous hearings thousands of people who have commented against the New Jersey Natural Gas pipeline, the public deserves the right to speak out against conflicting information in the Executive Director’s report before a vote takes place.”

The Pinelands Commission may try to move forward with a vote to approve the pipeline on Friday, September 8, 2017. The New Jersey Sierra Club believes it is unfair to the objectors that there will not be an opportunity to rebut issues in the Executive Director’s report before this takes place. This includes the recommendation that the pipeline is consistent with the Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) because it will cross through the Joint Base McGuire-Dix. The report claims that the utility infrastructure is conditionally permitted if it is associated with the function of the military installation, but the base will not be utilizing the gas associated with the pipeline.

“In a betrayal of the people of the Pinelands, Nancy Wittenberg put together a bogus report to protect the gas companies and push this destructive pipeline through. The Commission wrote the original resolution behind closed doors and passed it during a closed session. This is an outrageous attempt to keep the public out who deserves to comment on this report that has all types of misleading information that is not based on any fact. This report is flawed because they are using the Joint Base as an excuse to approve this pipeline when in fact it the gas could go anywhere,” said Jeff Tittel. “When they released this report, the public had no chance to review or comment on it, and didn’t even know about it since it wasn’t on the agenda. We believe the Executive Director of the Pinelands Commission’s exceeded her authority by unilaterally determining that the pipeline was consistent with the Comprehensive Management Plan. This decision circumvented a public hearing and further vote by the Pinelands Commission, which we believe is against the Pinelands Protection Act.” 

Additionally, this report was not included in the meeting packet by the standard document explaining the Pinelands Commission Appeal procedure. A vote at the next meeting on Friday, September 8, 2017 violates the Commission’s own resolution, which states: “6. Any interested party who possesses a particularized property interest sufficient to require a hearing on constitutional or statuary grounds in accordance with N.J. S.A 52: 14B- 3.2 & 3.3, may within 15 days of the posting of the Commissions’ recommendation report, submit a hearing request to the Commission.” And that “7. At the next Commission meeting after the time for appeal is set forth in Paragraph 6 above has expired and if no hearing request has been submitted, the Commission, based on the record delineated in Paragraph 1 above, any public comments received and the Commissions’ staff’s recommendation, shall either approve or disapprove such recommendation.

“The SRL pipeline itself violates the Comprehensive Management Plan and so does the process they are trying to approve the pipeline in. The Commission must follow its own rules allowing the public to appeal the Executive Director’s report with a formal public hearing. By not following the time period procedure, we believe the Commission is in violation of the Comprehensive Management Plan. Any vote must be scheduled at least 15 days after the production of this report and recommendation, no sooner than September 14^th. That means they should not be able to rubberstamp this pipeline at their next meeting,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “If they move forward and approve the pipeline on Friday, it will be a huge sell out our environment and drinking water. We will not give up in our fight to protect the Pinelands and will continue to fight this in court if we have to.”