Sierra Club Sues Over Approval of NJNGas SRL Pipeline

The New Jersey Sierra Club is suing the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and the Pinelands Commission on their approval of New Jersey Natural Gas’s Southern Reliability Link pipeline in the Pinelands. We are opposing the BPU and Pinelands Commission’s decision to allow a 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 challenging the decisions of the BPU and Pinelands Commissioner Director Nancy Wittenberg in court.

“We are suing the BPU and the Pinelands Commission to protect environmentally sensitive land and open space from this damaging and unnecessary pipeline. This pipeline will cause irreparable harm to the largest open space on the northeast seaboard, threaten our drinking water supply, and harm communities along the proposed route. NJNG says this pipeline is for reliability when in reality, they are asking the ratepayers to pay for a pipeline that will only be used to further development along the coast and will cause environmental destruction along the way. The people in New Jersey have made it clear that they don’t want this line to threaten their environment, homes, or communities. Rather than properly addressing public concern, the BPU is going forward with this project without input from citizens or municipalities or even a vote by the Pinelands Commission,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “The BPU should stand for the ‘Board of Promoting Utilities’ since they haven’t met a pipeline they didn’t like.”

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. The Pinelands is a UN biosphere reserve and one of the largest sources of fresh drinking water on the east coast. This project would put the environmentally sensitive lands, as well as drinking water for thousands of people, at risk. We also believe the BPU violated the law by removing local jurisdiction without finding the pipeline is in the public interest.

“We are challenging Executive Director Wittenberg’s actions in court. By single-handedly determining the pipeline would be in compliance with the Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP), she prohibited the Commission from a further vote. She also prevented the public from having a hearing. In reality, the pipeline would not be in compliance with the CMP and her decision goes against the Pinelands Rules. This decision has allowed the BPU will remove local jurisdiction, reducing transparency and public involvement even more. By making that determination, Wittenberg allowed the Pinelands Commission to hide behind having a final say and let the BPU rubberstamp this damaging pipeline,” said Jeff Tittel. “Despite using the Joint Base as an excuse for this pipeline, they are outside of the service area and the gas is actually committed to the coast for development.”

There is no need for this pipeline other than to promote fracking and the burning of fossil fuels that impact clean water and promote climate change. This pipeline will promote sprawl and overdevelopment down the shore and near the Pinelands when they have other clear alternatives. It also poses a safety threat by bringing dangerous fossil fuels right through our backyards.

“As we keep building more and more pipelines around the state, safety is becoming a serious issue. This is why we need to move away from dangerous fossil fuels coming through our communities. There are pipeline explosions and accidents happening more frequently around the country and they continuously put people and communities at risk. This pipeline will promote fracking, add to air pollution, and create safety hazards to the communities it passes through,” said Jeff Tittel. “Putting this pipeline through the Pinelands is like putting a blowtorch in your backyard.”

New Jersey Natural Gas’s Southern Reliability Link (SRL) pipeline would attach to the compressor station in Chesterfield and run through Burlington, Monmouth, and Ocean counties. The 30-mile, 30-inch pipeline would begin in Chesterfield, Burlington County and run through the Pinelands to the shore to connect to the utility system in Manchester Township, Ocean County. The utility company claims that this pipeline is for local resiliency against future storms but its real purpose is for growth along the coast and in Ocean County.

“The BPU says the pipeline is for reliability. Their definition of reliability is this: when they lie once, they just lie. When they lie a second time, they re-lie. The Southern Reliability Link would bring five times as much natural gas into Ocean County than necessary for resiliency. The purpose of this pipeline is potentially for a new gas-powered plant in Oyster Creek or the Heritage Mineral development project in Ocean County,” said Jeff Tittel. “This is not about resiliency; it’s about expanding their franchise area for more customers and development along the coast. There is no need for this pipeline other than to promote fracking and the burning of fossil fuels that impact clean water and promote climate change.”

We are suing in hopes the Pinelands Commission reconsiders the pipeline’s consistency with the management plan through a public process including a hearing and formal findings of fact, which would reverse the BPU’s decision. In addition, we hope to override the municipal land use authorizations that New Jersey Natural Gas would otherwise need, forcing the agency to proceed with authorizations in each municipality. The groups are being represented by the Eastern Environmental Law Center. We hope to bring in the citizen group People Over Pipelines.

“When environmental assessments and potential health issues are sidelined, the public is not well-served. It is our hope that this lawsuit -- among the many others that have been filed against such infrastructure invasions -- will put the industry in its proper place. We hope it will also put the regulatory agencies on notice that their charters are first and foremost supposed to be for the people and not for-profit exploitation at great cost to the general health and welfare of the people and the environment through which the proposed infrastructure would pass,” said Walter Helfrecht, People Over Pipelines.

The SRL pipeline is only part of the bigger push for fracking and dirty infrastructure. The Southern Reliability Link pipeline, Garden State Expansion compressor station, and PennEast Pipeline are all one project. NJNG is a 20% partner in PennEast and is getting their 180,000 dekatherms of natural gas from them. PennEast is putting that gas into a Transco substation in Ewing which is part of the Garden State Expansion. That same amount of gas will then go to compressor station in Chesterfield and into the Southern Reliability Link pipeline. The compressor station, Southern Reliability Link, and PennEast Pipeline would work together as one system and should be evaluated as such.

“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.”

Despite the widespread public opposition, the BPU and the Pinelands Commission are letting this project go forward without a proper public hearing or input by the local municipalities.

“This pipeline is unnecessary and unneeded. It will only cut a scar through environmentally sensitive lands to create safety hazard for communities along the route. It is not for reliability; it is for developing fossil fuel infrastructure along the coast. This pipeline will promote fracking and threaten the environment and communities of New Jersey,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “The BPU and Nancy Wittenberg have both manipulated the system and laws to push this project through. They have worked together to game the system on behalf of New Jersey Natural Gas. This is shameful and illegal and that is why we are challenging it in court.”

We have attached the notice of appeal. If you have questions about the legal aspects of the case, please contact Raghu Murthy at rmurthy@easternenvironmental.org or (973) 424-1166.

• Download full text: SC_Memo_on_Appeal.pdf