Sierra Club Sues BPU, Pinelands Commission Over NJNG Pipeline Approvals

The New Jersey Sierra Club filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the approval by the Pinelands Commission and the Board of Public Utilities of a New Jersey Natural Gas plan to build a 30-mile pipeline into the Pinelands, the group said.

The $130 million project, which would run through Monmouth and Burlington counties before connecting with an existing NJ Natural Gas pipeline in Manchester, has been vigorously opposed since it was first proposed in April 2015.

The BPU approved the project in January, pending approval from the Pinelands Commission. In March, Nancy Wittenberg, executive director of the Pinelands Commission, ruled the pipeline was a private development and not subject to the commission's approvals process, according to a report on Politico New Jersey. The BPU finalized its approval a week later in a vote that removed it from having to go through municipal zoning boards, the Sierra Club says.

Public information meetings prior to the BPU's first approval, including one held in Manchester, were standing-room-only affairs as residents and several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, protested the proposal.

"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.

"We believe the executive director of the Pinelands Commission exceeded her authority by unilaterally determining that the pipeline was consistent with the Comprehensive Management Plan," Tittel said. "By single-handedly determining the pipeline would be in compliance with the Comprehensive Management Plan, she prohibited the Commission from a further vote. She also prevented the public from having a hearing."

"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,” Tittel said.

New Jersey Natural Gas’s Southern Reliability Link, a 30-inch pipeline, would attach to a compressor station in Chesterfield, Burlington County and run through the Pinelands to the shore to connect to the utility system in Manchester. The utility company has said the purpose of the pipeline is to provide reliability and redundancy for its customers in future storms. It was conceived in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

NJ Natural Gas spokesman Michael Kinney said the utility company expects the approvals to be upheld on appeal.

"The certificate of filing issued by the Pinelands Commission staff and the approvals of the Board of Public Utilities were based on facts," Kinney said.

The pipeline has come under fire on another front in recent weeks, as a NJ Natural Gas request for a 24 percent increase in its delivery rate has local and state legislators up at arms. A group of mayors has banded together, calling themselves the "Say No to 24 Coalition," to fight the proposed increase, saying its impact, particularly on senior citizens, will be too much for many ratepayers to bear.

The Sierra Club says it believes the real purpose of the pipeline is to bring fracked natural gas from Pennsylvania into New Jersey.

"The Southern Reliability Link pipeline, Garden State Expansion compressor station, and PennEast Pipeline are all one project," Tittel said. "NJNG is a 20 percent partner in PennEast and is getting their 180,000 dekatherms of natural gas from them. ... NJNG and other utility companies are planning to criss-cross our state with dangerous pipelines. “The relationship between the three projects is symbiotic; without one project the other two can’t happen."

"The Pinelands is a UN biosphere reserve and one of the largest sources of fresh drinking water on the East Coast," Tittel said. "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."

“This is not about resiliency," he said. "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.”

Tittel said the Sierra Club hopes the lawsuit will force the Pinelands Commission to reconsider the pipeline issue through a public process including a hearing and formal findings of fact, as well as forcing NJ Natural Gas to get approvals from each municipality to proceed with the pipeline.

“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,” Tittel said.