Old Bridge Transco Pipeline: Meeting Thursday In Keyport

KEYPORT, NJ — Patch has been reporting for some time now about controversial plans to extend the Transco pipeline through Old Bridge Township and Sayreville and underneath Raritan Bay. There will be a public meeting this Thursday night, July 13, in Keyport for anyone concerned about or interested in the pipeline. The meeting is organized by Food & Water Watch, an environmental group that is against the pipeline.

"At the least we expect 100 people; the meeting room holds 200," said Junior Romero, an organizer with Food & Water Watch. "We've been doing three weeks of outreach now, called and texted over 1,000 people, and left flyers at over 2,000 doors in Old Bridge, Sayreville and some Monmouth County communities."

The meeting will be held in the Keyport High School cafeteria at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 13.

The Williams Companies, one of the nation's largest suppliers of natural gas, wants to expand the Transco pipeline through the eastern part of Old Bridge Township and into Sayreville. As shown in the map above, which was provided by Williams, they want to build the pipeline just north of Cheesequake State Park. That pipeline will be extended into Raritan Bay. There will be three miles of pipeline underground in Old Bridge/Sayreville, and then 26 miles of pipeline underneath Raritan Bay, extending to its final destination in Rockaway Beach, Queens. The pipeline will deliver natural gas from Pennsylvania to the New York City market, which has an extremely high demand for the cheap, efficient fuel.

On land, the pipeline will be between three and seven feet under the earth. At its deepest point, the pipeline will be 85 feet under the bottom of Raritan Bay.

“We are hosting this public forum because we do not believe Williams Transco has done a good job reaching out to the public along the Raritan Bayshore about the significant impacts of this proposed pipeline,” said Debbie Mans, Executive Director and the Baykeeper of NY/NJ Baykeeper.

"Besides the safety concerns of building this pipeline through dense residential communities near a school and place of worship, a major expansion like this in Raritan Bay can endanger sensitive marine life and Bayshore tourism," said Romero. "Sayreville, Old Bridge and Bayshore communities stand to lose the most from this proposal. Come learn what's next for this proposed project."

But the company says pipelines are safe and have carried natural gas under New Jersey for decades without incident.

The project also includes building a natural gas compressor station on the South Brunswick/Franklin Township border in Somerset County. That compressor station is equally controversial; some people who live there don't want it built near their homes. They say the station will be noisy and emit toxins into the air, claims the company says are unfounded.

The entire project needs to first be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Williams submitted their application in March, and it takes FERC about a year to issue a decision.

Past Patch reporting: Transco Gas Pipeline Will Bring Jobs To Middlesex County, Study Says

Site Picked for Transco Gas Compressor Station Near South Brunswick