Middlesex County Freeholders Get Involved in Transco Pipeline Debate

Big news this week in the fight against the proposed Transco natural gas pipeline in central New Jersey: The Middlesex County Board of Freeholders announced Monday they are filing a motion to intervene in the pipeline proposal.

In a letter released yesterday, Freeholder Director Ronald Rios announced the Freeholders are filing as intervenors with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This motion grants the county access to all relevant filings and documents related to the pipeline. FERC is the federal agency that ultimately decides whether the pipeline gets built.

South Brunswick and Franklin townships also filed for intervenor status. But the Middlesex Freeholder Board is so far the highest-ranking group of elected officials to get involved. They did so after hundreds of residents packed into an April 20 Freeholder meeting, asking them to help stop the pipeline from being built. The Somerset County Board of Freeholders meets Tuesday night and there will be similar pressure on them as well this evening.

“Although it doesn't necessarily mean the county is opposed to the project, the Board of Freeholders was pressured by residents to take action as a government body, and this is a good start,” said Junior Romero, an organizer with Food & Water Watch.

As Patch has reported, a multi-billion-dollar Oklahoma-based energy company, Williams Transco, wants to expand on their existing natural gas pipeline, which runs directly underneath a large swath of Central New Jersey. If FERC approves it, a new compressor station will be built on the South Brunswick/Franklin border and 26 miles of new pipeline will be built underneath Raritan Bay. But Williams is encountering plenty of opposition, from environmental activists who say the pipeline may endanger Raritan Bay water quality to South Brunswick and Franklin residents who don't want a compressor station near their homes.

The deadline to apply for intervenor status is this Thursday, April 27 at 5 p.m. Anyone can sign up for intervenor status and you can do so here.

“This is exactly the kind of action the Freeholders should take to protect the health and safety of county residents and it shows they are listening to our concerns about this dirty energy project," Romero said.

Williams says the new Raritan Bay pipeline will be a safe, reliable way to transport natural gas to the hungry New York City market. They also point out that they've maintained 500 miles of existing natural gas pipelines under Central Jersey for decades, which have carried gas without incident. Those pipelines, owned by Williams, deliver half of the natural gas consumed in the Garden State.