County Denies PennEast Further Access to Lands for Pipeline Project

Mercer County will not permit officials associated with the proposed PennEast Pipeline Project access to lands owned by Mercer County for the purpose of surveying the property to facilitate the project.

County officials made the announcement on Tuesday after the company performed soil bearings on Baldpate Mountain, which the county has deemed as potentially environmentally harmful.

PennEast, a consortium of natural gas companies that has the backing of the state’s natural gas suppliers, has no legal obligation to consult with the county to access or map public land, county officials said. However, the county believed that granting access to the company to delineate wetlands and to survey would provide the knowledge necessary to protect county open space.

The county blocked further access to the property after learning that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has been unable to collect enough information to issue permits to PennEast to perform work.

The county will not permit any more soil borings on Baldpate Mountain, barring federal approval.

“The county is prepared to fight on the behalf of county interests and to fight for the open space it has purchased,” officials said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “The county remains opposed to the pipeline.”

“PennEast is disappointed to learn of Mercer County’s decision to rescind and terminate survey permission, though PennEast will continue it efforts to work with all directly involved landowners, as well as agencies, to define the best route,” PennEast spokesperson Patricia Kornick said.

She added that while surveys are an important part of the project, they are not the only method PennEast uses to obtain information. She said they are important because they provide landowners an opportunity to provide input regarding the proposed route.

Baldpate Mountain is the highest point in Mercer County and has over 12 miles of marked trails for horseback riding, mountain biking, and trail running.

The county was among those who acquired the land from Traprock Industries in 1998 after a failed expansion of the land. The efforts of conservationist Ted Stiles prevented the land from being turned into a luxury housing development.

Mercer County approved the drilling for the soil bearings on Baldpate Mountain without seeking approval from Hopewell Township, The Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space or the State Department of Environmental Protection, all of whom are co-owners of Baldpate.

Mercer County is the primary administrator and manager of the property, and it is unclear if any other entity would have had to grant permission to enter the property, Mercer County Spokesperson Julie Wilmot said on Tuesday.

The proposed pipeline is 110 miles long and 36 inches in diameter. The company says the $1 billion project would result in customers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey receiving “affordable natural gas.”

It would begin in Dallas, Luzerne County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, and end at the Transco pipeline interconnection near Pennington, according to PennEast’s website.

The interactive map depicting the entire route can be seen here.

County officials first became aware of the project last fall.

Preliminary maps showed the underground gas line bisecting pristine parkland, preserved open space, farmland, woodlands and wetlands throughout Mercer Meadows, including the Rosedale Lake, Equestrian Center, Ecological, and Farm districts.

Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes was vehemently opposed to the proposed pipeline cutting through environmentally sensitive county-owned open space. He voiced his opposition in a joint resolution with the Board of Chosen Freeholders in November, and in testimony to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in February.

At that time, he made the following requests:

• the company must consider the impact on natural, cultural and historic resources, and what alternatives exist, including the possibility of not building the pipeline;
• a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement be developed; and
• impact on preserved lands must be considered and the public must be fairly compensated based on its investment in the land and its pre-preserved state and must result in meaningful additions to the preserved landscape.

The ecosystems in Mercer Meadows and Rosedale will not be impacted after the county urged PennEast to co-locate the proposed gas line with existing utility rights of way.

The county claims the company’s initial proposal to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) revealed the proposed path would cut through pristine ground including fragile wetlands. The current proposal puts more than 85 percent of the pipeline in Mercer County within existing public utility rights of way.

Kornick said PennEast plans to submit a formal application to FERC in the third quarter of the year. She also looked to clear up a misconception Tuesday night.

“It has been reported widely that a July 2 letter from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is a major setback to the proposed project,” Kornick said. “In fact, the letter from the NJDEP is a routine part of the FERC pre-filing process. Like many of the comments submitted to the FERC docket, it provides feedback for PennEast to consider as it finalizes the resource reports and formal application.”