NJDEP denies permit application for Transco/Williams fracked-gas compressor station, citing “deficiencies”

Fracked gas compressor station proposed for construction in Franklin Twp., NJ

Ashley Jankowski reports for TAPinto.net:

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection recently denied Transco/Williams, the permit application necessary for advancing the construction of the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline project.

The Northeast Supply Enhancement project (NESE) is a fracked gas pipeline that would potentially run from Raritan Bay in New Jersey to a pipeline offshore of the Rockaways in Queens, New York. It is an expansion of the preexisting Transcontinental Gas Pipeline, which brings natural gas from as far south as the Gulf Coast of Texas up to the New Jersey and New York region.

The $1 billion project includes the highly controversial construction of a compressor station on a 52-acre site in Franklin, near State Highway 27 and County Route 518.

In June, Transco/Williams submitted an application to the Division of Land Use Regulation for a series of permits, including a Flood Hazard Area Individual Permit, a Flood Hazard Area Verification, a Freshwater Wetlands Individual Permit, a Waterfront Development Permit, and a Coastal Wetland Permit. This application was first denied on July 18th, and while Transco/Williams reapplied, The Division of Land Use Regulation determined that the application still remained deficient on September 12th.

Citing the NJDEP’s deficiency letter, the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club released a statement condemning the project.

“The DEP has once again found Transco’s application for water permits for their NESE project deficient,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, in the press release. “This is because it’s a bad project and the applications are incomplete. Now we need to urge the NJDEP to throw out Transco’s application together.”

The New Jersey Sierra Club argues that the proposed compressor station would create detrimental air, water, and noise pollution in its surrounding areas, and that the pipeline poses pollution risks to New Jersey waterways, especially the Raritan Bay.

“This project would cut through the already polluted and sensitive Raritan Bay and the New York Bay,” Tittel said. “It could carry and release contaminated sediment into the environment and both bodies of water and disturb contaminated sites. 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.”

Along with a number of other opponents to the project, the New Jersey Sierra Club also asserts that NESE would be a step backward in New Jersey and New York’s respective transitions to renewable energy.

Transco/Williams regarded the deficiency letter as “a normal part of the state’s permit application process” and that it is “common for a permit application [of] this size”.

“We continue to actively collaborate with NJDEP to satisfy its application requirements so that it can be considered administratively complete and processed in a timely manner,” said Christopher L. Stockton, a Williams media representative for Atlantic Gulf and Transco. “In that regard, we plan to file a response to NJDEP’s notification shortly. It is unfortunate that some organizations would attempt to misrepresent what is a normal step in the permit application process.”

A closer look at the deficiency letter shows that the application failed to a number of missing components, rather than proven environmental hazards.

What are the problems with the application?

Read the full story

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