Contact:  Jeff Tittel, Director, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100

SC Joins Rally in Manchester against SRL Pipeline through the Pinelands

Today the New Jersey Sierra Club is joining People Over Pipelines and other groups to rally in Manchester against the Southern Reliability Link (SRL) pipeline. New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) is proposing to build this pipeline from a compressor station to be built in Chesterfield into Manchester. We are rallying to tell the Pinelands Commission that this pipeline will do damage to our environment, water supply, and the Pinelands as a whole. After we sued against the Executive Director’s unilateral approval of the pipeline, without a full Commission vote, the issue was remanded back to the Commission. The rally is being held on August 5, 2017 at 10:00 am near the ShopRite Parking lot 1001 Rt 70, Manchester, NJ 08759.

“We’re rallying together to tell the Pinelands Commission to reject this unnecessary and illegal pipeline. Not only is NJNG’s application incomplete, but the Commission’s public process was as well. They made up the process they put in place so there are no procedures for it. It’s simply made to limit public input and oversight. Wittenberg is taking the side of the gas company over protecting the Pinelands. This pipeline would violate the Comprehensive Management Plan by going through the Forest Preservation Area without actually services anyone in the Pines. The Commissioners need to do their job to protect the Pinelands and reject this pipeline,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

The New Jersey Sierra Club is currently suing the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and the Pinelands Commission on their approval of the SRL pipeline. We are opposing the BPU and Pinelands Commission’s decision to allow the 28-mile gas pipeline to destroy environmentally sensitive land in the New Jersey and threaten communities along the route in Burlington, Ocean, and Monmouth Counties. We are also challenging the decisions of the BPU and Pinelands Commissioner Director Nancy Wittenberg in court. 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.

“This pipeline is part of a bigger picture, which is the rush to bring fracked gas from Pennsylvania to the New Jersey coast for development. The SRL is directly interconnected to the Garden State Expansion compressor station and PennEast Pipeline. The SRL would connect to the Garden State Expansion (GSE) compressor station in Chesterfield which would get gas from the PennEast Pipeline. These projects would be working together to bring fracked gas into New Jersey. NJNG and other utility companies are planning to criss-cross our state with dangerous pipelines,” said Jeff Tittel. “The relationship between the three projects is symbiotic; without one project the other two can’t happen.”

We had previously written a letter telling the Commission that the current comment period is not enough time for this to be done nor enough time for public scrutiny, especially since it is right in the middle of the summer. We asked the Commission to add more hearings on the proposal. The location of the current public meeting is inadequate because Toms River is more than 40 minutes from the majority of the people living along the pipeline route and is not on the proposed route whatsoever. We requested the locations be held along the proposed route including Bordentown, Plumsted, and Manchester.

“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, one hearing is not nearly enough to handle the amount of people concerned about this project. Out of the three hearings, we believe at least one should be a nighttime hearing and one should be an afternoon hearing so people who work during the daytime can attend. Instead of making it a fair process, the Pinelands Commission is gaming the system to keep out the public opposition,” said Jeff Tittel.

The Christie Administration has removed commissioners who voted against the pipeline and stacked it with people who support South Jersey Gas instead of protecting the Pines. The Pinelands is the largest open space on the eastern seaboard and recognized for its biodiversity by the United Nations. It is also the country’s first National Reserve and holds 17 trillion gallons of water in its aquifer.

“We will continue to stand up and protect the Pinelands because the NJNG SRL pipelines will create irreversible harm to wetlands, streams, as well as damage important open spaces. It would threaten one of the largest sources of fresh drinking water on the east coast. The Commission must reject this application because it violates the Pinelands Act and the Administrative Procedures Act. There is no need for the SRL pipeline in the Pinelands,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “If we didn’t go to court, they would be building the pipeline by now. They may try to rubberstamp this pipeline but we’ll go back to court, just like we’re doing on South Jersey Gas! We’re going to keep fighting to protect the Pinelands from being destroyed by these unneeded pipelines!”