If either agency consents, it could force New Jersey Natural Gas to halt construction of the pipeline, which began earlier this month in Plumsted, Ocean County, and is proceeding at the company’s “own risk,” meaning the utility will accept responsibility for the expense of restoring any disturbed property if the courts end up scuttling the project.
David Levinsky reports for the Burlington County Times:
TRENTON — Two environmental groups have asked the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and the state Pinelands Commission to order a utility company to stop construction of a controversial natural gas pipeline through northern Burlington, Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Both agencies already have approved construction of the 30-mile pipeline, but those decisions are under appeal, and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and the New Jersey Sierra Club want the two agencies to suspend their approvals until the litigation is resolved.
If either agency consents, it could force New Jersey Natural Gas to halt construction of the pipeline, which began earlier this month in Plumsted, Ocean County, and is proceeding at the company’s “own risk,” meaning the utility will accept responsibility for the expense of restoring any disturbed property if the courts end up scuttling the project.
The transmission feed, called the Southern Reliability Link, is planned to run from a compressor station another utility company has built off Route 528 in Chesterfield and travel west through North Hanover, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and other towns in Monmouth and Ocean counties to a connection with the utility’s distribution system in Manchester, Ocean County.
New Jersey Natural Gas insists the project is critically important to the reliability of gas delivery to its more than 1 million customers, mostly in Ocean and Monmouth counties because it will provide a second transmission feed to its territory.
But opponents have waged an unrelenting battle against the project, arguing that the close proximity of the compressor station and pipeline route to residences and businesses in Bordentown Township, Chesterfield and North Hanover will pose a significant safety and pollution risk.
Environmental groups also argue the infrastructure promotes hydraulic gas drilling in Pennsylvania, which they say pollutes water and contributes to climate change.
In their request, the two environmental groups argue that the appeals are likely to be successful and that New Jersey Natural Gas places its ratepayers at risk by proceeding with the appeals still unresolved.
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