Coalition Launches New Offensive Against Pilgrim Pipeline Project

A coalition of hundreds of people has sent a letter to Pilgrim Pipeline’s parent company requesting it defund and stop efforts to construct the 178-mile pipeline due to what it says are unethical behavior, false claims, and deceitful business practices.

“We’re trying to come at this from as many angles as possible,” said Ken Dolsky, a Parsippany resident who is a member of the coalition. “Even without this effort, the laws in New York state should make it impossible for the pipeline to be built there.”

The New York/New Jersey Coalition Against the Pilgrim Pipeline is a group of more than 500 residents, including dozens of environmental activities, and local organizations. The group considers the project to be immoral and says it only benefits a chosen few people.

In its letter to Ares Management, L.P., the Coalition said Pilgrim has failed to provide proof of its claim that transporting the petroleum products using the pipeline is “far more environmentally friendly than relying on trucks or fleets of traditional barges.”

Bill Mendel, of Mendel Communications, the media contact listed on Ares' website, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The 178-mile pipeline would deliver up to 200,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Albany, New York through New Jersey and the Bayway Refinery in Linden. Gasoline and heating oil would be sent back up to New York.

If approved, the pipeline is expected to travel through some of the state’s most environmentally-pristine areas, including the Highlands region and over the Ramapo River Aquifer, which provides thousands of residents with drinking water.

The Coalition also poked holes in Pilgrim’s argument that the pipeline will not leak. According to the group, from 1986 to 2013, pipeline accidents have spilled an average of 3 million gallons of crude oil annually and that the average pipeline has a 57 percent chance of “experiencing a major leak.”

“We want to make Ares understand that this kind of behavior is unacceptable,” Dolsky said.

Pilgrim has made the case that the project would provided jobs to 2,000 area union workers and bolster the local economy.

Surveying work for the project began at the Ramapo Valley Reservation in Mahwah in April. The work was supposed to determine if there were any endangered animal habitats in the area.

Municipal, county, and state representatives have spoken out against the project.

New Jersey Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen (District 11) previously said that the “people behind the Pilgrim pipeline have not done their due diligence,” the letter states.

Oakland Mayor Linda Schwager agreed.

Schwager said that the pipeline puts “our residents, our drinking water, and our first responders at risk.

“The Ramapo River Aquifer is Oakland’s most precious resource and our towns sites on top of a major fault line,” the letter quotes Schwager as saying. “Could you imagine an earthquake causing a rupture, leak, or explosion? A pipeline spill could pollute our aquifer and render it undrinkable for decades.”

More than two-dozen North Jersey municipalities and the New Jersey Senate passed resolutions opposing the pipeline’s construction.

“Hopefully, all of this will get their attention,” Dolsky said.

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