Op Ed: July 20 Hearing on Gas Regulator Station on Holmdel Road

Holmdel, NJ - Letter to the Editor:

On July 20, 2016, the Holmdel Township Zoning Board will hold a continued PUBLIC Hearing to allow NJ Natural Gas to build an industrial gas regulator station on Holmdel Road.

Among the 12 associated waivers and variances, NJNG has requested from the Board is to grant relief from Township ordinances requiring an environmental resource survey and / or an environmental impact report. The NJNG station includes 15 foot high stacks that discharge daily various emission components including ozone damaging gases.

The public should be justifiably concerned, if there is nothing to worry about, to why NJNG would need to be exempt from submitting the appropriate environmental impactstatements and reports.

At prior PUBLIC hearings it was learned that the similar application before Holmdel’s Zoning Board was turned down by other authorities.

Holmdel residents and taxpayers should make a special effort to attend and participate in the July 20 PUBLIC hearing to determine for themselves if approvals for the NJNG regulator station benefits Holmdel’s air quality, land use in the Reservoir’s watershed and enhances their property values.

- Scott Goldstein

Citizens for Informed Land Use (CILU)

East Lawn Drive

Holmdel, NJ 07733