By Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News
Opponents are on guard again over a revived proposal to carry natural gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey — including along the seabed in Raritan Bay — into Queens, New York.
They call it the “zombie pipeline” because, after being killed twice by legal challenges and permit denials that spanned almost a decade, the project has come back to life.
Oklahoma-based Williams/Transco is behind the attempted revival of the Northeast Supply Enhancement Pipeline. The pipeline, which would generate energy only for New York, would also require a new compressor station in Franklin Township, Somerset County.
Revived natural gas pipeline plan includes major disturbances in Raritan Bay.
Opponents say the construction of an underwater pipeline would expose New Jersey to all of the risks and pollution with zero benefits. Greg Remaud, CEO of NY/NJ Baykeeper, said he believes Raritan Bay would be irreparably harmed.
“Raritan Bay, it’s just an incredible recreational and ecological treasure,” Remaud said. “I mean, there’s boating, sailing, crabbing, world-class fishing for bluefish, striped bass, fluke. It supports kelp, which is what whales feed on, and supports lots of other fish. There’s a commercial crabbing industry here. So, to run a needless pipeline across twenty-three miles of Raritan Bay, going through wetlands and then slicing through marine habitat and clam beds, it makes no sense to us.”
Remaud is concerned that construction would disturb toxic heavy metals, such as copper and mercury, buried in the bay’s sediments — a relic of New Jersey’s industrial past.
Undoing ‘good environmental work’
“Now $175 million is going to clean up the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund site, which is right adjacent to where the NESE pipeline would be going in,” Remaud said. “All this money is being spent to remove lead, but copper, mercury, and other contaminants are being re-suspended into the water column? So it really makes no sense, and the stakes are even higher because we’re undoing really good environmental work on the Raritan Bayshore,” he added.
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