DEP-Do Your Job, Protect Our Environment! Reject Willams/Transco Permits!

The New Jersey Sierra Club along with other environmental organizations are holding a press conference demanding DEP to stop the NESE compressor station & Raritan Bay gas pipeline by rejecting crucial permits for its project. Permits include, Flood Hazard Area, Coastal Wetland, and Waterfront Development. The Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Project is a proposed capacity expansion of the Transco Pipeline, an interstate natural gas transmission pipeline, which includes a natural gas compressor station to be located in Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey on land previously owned by Trap Rock Industries LLC, which operates the nearby Kingston Quarry. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club released the following statement:

 “The DEP must protect the environment and the public by denying Transco’s Land use and associated water permits for their proposed NESE project. The NESE pipeline would cut through the already polluted and sensitive Raritan Bay and the New York Bay. It could carry and release contaminated sediment into the environment and both bodies of water and disturb contaminated sites. Chemicals like PCBs, Dioxane can be resuspended and get into the fisheries, the bay and ocean. When you cut through a bay like the Raritan, it has an impact on the fisheries as well as the ecology of the Bay. The fish, plants and other living creatures in the Bay would be threatened by this pipeline.

“Transco’s application has failed to examine the additional threats and effects from worsening climate change, rising sea levels, and increased storm events. Additionally, it does not properly measure or evaluate secondary or cumulative impacts from connected and surrounding infrastructure including the connected pipeline that would cross the Raritan Bay. It is critical that the DEP consider the impacts the NESE project will have and reject their permits altogether.

“Transco will destroy critical wetlands for their compressor station and pipeline, which will be a disaster waiting to happen. Wetlands filter chemicals and sediment out of water before it is discharged into the ocean. They are also critical for mitigating flooding during storm surges. If we destroy important coastal wetlands, we will be seeing more pollution and more flooding in Middlesex and Monmouth County.

 “Compressor stations are dangerous for the health, safety, and environment of the people who live near them. The release toxic chemicals such as methane, ethane, and MTBEs, as well as other greenhouse gasses. An explosion or leak could threaten communities, destroy important habitat ­­and add pollution to waterways. Transco’s proposal would mean more gas and more pressure, increasing the change of an accident.

“Williams Transco is already threatening New Jersey with other gas pipelines and infrastructure and the secondary and cumulative impacts of this infrastructure is not included in these applications. Their proposed Garden State Expansion compressor station would connect into a New Jersey Natural Gas Pipeline in Chesterfield. Much of this gas is more likely to go out of state or to export rather than service the people of New Jersey.

“There is no reason for the DEP to approve these permits when they’ve already spoken out against the applications being incomplete. It’s clear that this project would be bad for the environment and the DEP must do their job and reject it from being built. They also didn’t properly examine alternative locations for this project. The NESE project is unneeded and unnecessary and should be rejected by New Jersey and New York altogether and they should kick out the application entirely. The NESE project will impact our environment, our safety, and our chance to reach Governor Murphy’s 100% renewable goals. That is why we need to get this project the FERC out of New Jersey!”