Holmdel Vows To Fight Plans For Natural Gas Regulator Station

HOLMDEL, N.J.— The Township Committee has vowed to keep pushing back on a petition by New Jersey Natural Gas to locate a regulator station here, despite a recent favorable ruling for the utility, it said in a statement released Wednesday, June 1.

An administrative law judge issued an initial ruling this past week to allow the NJNG petition to continue, but the township assured residents that it will fight the plan.

The judge’s decision has been sent to the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) for review and it will make a final decision in the matter.

The township has been involved in continuing litigation with NJNG over a proposal to build a regulator station at 960 Holmdel Road in the southern part of the Township.

A regulator station reduces pressure on the underground natural gas pipelines that already exist in the area, running underneath the ground in Holmdel Township and throughout Monmouth County.

"It is important to make the distinction that this is an initial decision, not a final decision," the township said in the statement.

Holmdel Township’s special counsel on this matter will be defending the Township before the BPU and is prepared to file briefs, if necessary, to continue the litigation, the statement read.

"The Township Committee is committed to pursuing every possible legal avenue to prevent this regulator station from being built in Holmdel," the statement said.

In 2018, when the project was first proposed, Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for NJ Natural Gas, told Patch "the regulator station itself is needed to support the reliability of NJNG's distribution system. It will replace a temporary station that is currently in operation, but that is not designed or suitable to support the system permanently."

The regulator station will consist primarily of underground piping, a 15-foot tall ventilated heating unit (Roberts says that's what the project's opponents have mischaracterized as "smokestacks"), a control box and two regulator runs that will be located above ground. For comparison, the heating unit looks like a commercial-sized boiler. The regulator station would likely not be visible from Holmdel Road, as fencing and landscaping would be built around it.

Still, environmental advocates say Holmdel's preserved farmland, homes, the nearby Village Elementary School and the Swimming River Watershed are not the place for a regulator station.

" This is an industrial natural gas regulator station that will pollute the land, pollute our waters and will be a major nuisance to the community," Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said in the 2018 interview with Patch. "The proposal will bring in air pollution right next to preserved farmland and near the Swimming River Reservoir."

However, NJ Natural Gas argues the proposed regulator station will not have any adverse impact on air quality or pollution impacts on water quality, based on existing standards already set by the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection and the federal EPA.