The Pinelands Preservation Alliance’s Policy Advocate, Katie Smith, talks about the problems pipelines can present for the Pinelands’ ecology.
In February, the Pinelands Commission, New Jersey’s independent state agency devoted to preserving, protecting and enhancing the natural and cultural resources of the Pinelands National Reserve, approved the construction of the South Jersey Gas Proposed Pipeline, which would run straight through the Pinelands and connect the Cumberland Lateral Pipeline in Maurice River Township to the BL England power plant in Cape May County.
While the pipeline has been approved, its pending construction isn’t a guarantee; three environmental advocacy groups, The Pinelands Preservation Alliance, New Jersey Sierra Club and Environment New Jersey, have appealed the decision to the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court, taking one last shot to prevent the pipeline from being built. A motion to stay was filed but denied, allowing the gas company to go forward with the project.
The timeline for the appeals process isn’t set in stone, according to Pinelands Preservation Alliance’s Policy Advocate Katie Smith. She says the PPA expects an oral argument to be made in the Fall, and that a decision is to be made “likely by the end of the year.”
Additionally, there’s a proposal for a second pipeline, which is pending approval. New Jersey Gas’ Southern Reliability Link would connect the Trenton-Woodbury Lateral Pipeline in Chesterfield Township to a network of pipelines in Lakehurst Borough. The Pinelands Commission is expected to vote on approving the Southern Reliability Link pipeline some time this year. The pipeline could have many negative effects on the local ecology, according to Smith.
The biggest cause for concern, according to Smith, is if the pipeline leaks into the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer, which both pipelines would run through if constructed.
In what’s called a “frack out,” bentonite or other contaminants from the pipeline could find their way into the aquifer, which contains 17 trillion gallons of water and is relied upon by almost 1 million people.
“Anything that could cause serious damage to the aquifer is a big threat,” Smith said. “Additionally, having this pipeline go through and setting the precedent that these kinds of developments are OK really sets the stage for future developments to go through and really ruin the Pinelands as we know it.”
According to Smith, there is evidence that new pipelines leak “at approximately the same rate” as older pipelines.
Both South Jersey Gas and New Jersey Natural Gas have said their pipelines, if built, would be “safe” and “reliable.”
Both SJG and NJNG say they are building the pipelines to decrease the possibility of future service outages in the event of inclement weather or other disruptions, resulting in consistently better service for customers.
Additionally, a statement from an SJG publicist said, “There is no existing evidence of adverse water quality impacts ever associated with the natural gas distribution pipelines that currently cross the Pinelands. There are hundreds of natural gas pipelines in the Pinelands that have been in place for decades without any adverse impacts on the Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer.”
NJNG gave a similar statement to The Sun, saying “the SRL will have a minimal effect on the environment as it will primarily be located under existing road rights-of-way,” and adding “the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection agreed with a finding made by the Air Force in its environmental assessment of the SRL that there would be no adverse impacts to groundwater aquifers, wetlands or streams as a result of the SRL.”
SJG claimed its pipeline would help 142,000 business owners and residential customers in Atlantic and Cape May counties. NJNG said its pipeline would benefit more than 1 million people in 83 municipalities throughout Ocean, Monmouth and Burlington counties.
A second issue, more specifically regarding the Southern Reliability Link — the pipeline that has yet to be approved — is it runs through Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a military base located in Burlington and Ocean counties. This is significant because of contaminants found near the base.
As the result of a firefighting exercise at the base, soil and groundwater in the area have become contaminated with two types of hazardous perfluorinated compounds: perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the health advisory level of these substances is 70 parts per trillion. The state Department of Environmental Protection’s health advisory level for these substances is 40 parts per trillion. Documents provided by the Pinelands Preservation Alliance show the results of a base-wide study of the area “revealed exceedances of the EPA [health advisory] for PFOs and/or PFOA at each of the 21 sites” where groundwater and surface water samples were collected.
The fear is construction of the pipeline would transport the contaminants to other areas.
“There is already some existing transport of [the contaminants],” Smith said. “They’ve seen PFCs within the surface water of a tributary of the Rancocas, so it’s already moving. The fear is that it would move faster or to areas that it might not otherwise be.”
Smith and others at the PPA place a lot of the blame for the pipeline’s construction on the Christie administration, which the PPA feels hasn’t done enough to protect the environment.
“We haven’t seen an indication from the current administration that they’re really serious about protecting the Pinelands, and some of the actions that they’ve taken or not taken have really contributed to the pipeline going through and other environmental issues becoming worse throughout the past few years,” Smith said. “The state really is at fault for allowing these sorts of things to happen.”
Smith’s chief concern is how the administration packed the Pinelands Commission with pro-pipeline members after the pipeline’s initial failure to pass in January 2014. Upon the expiration of anti-pipeline Pinelands Commissioner Bob Jackson’s term, Christie appointed the believed-to-be pro-pipeline Bob Barr.
Needless to say, the PPA wasn’t happy with Christie’s nominee.
How will the upcoming gubernatorial election affect the future of the Southern Reliability Link pipeline, which has still yet to be approved?
“We are a 501(c)(3) so we don’t make endorsements for any office,” Smith smith. “But we and our members have been working really hard to educate all the candidates on the issues that are important to people who live in the Pinelands and issues that are important to the environmental community at large on these pipelines and the importance of the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer and we’re getting the sense that the candidates are receptive.”
