Trash may come through Montgomery as well
By: Helen Pettigrew
Metuchen, a borough in Middlesex County, has filed a lawsuit against Union County to stop the construction of a marine transfer station in Linden that would bring mile-long trains of New York City garbage through Metuchen and, possibly, Montgomery Township.
Metuchen Mayor Edmund O’Brien said Metuchen officials fear that a natural gas pipeline, located 10 feet from the rail line, could be disturbed by the passage of trains. He said that a derailment could cause a disaster like the 1994 explosion of a natural gas line in Edison that destroyed nearby homes.
Allan Marcus, spokesman for Browning Ferris Industries, the company that proposes building the transfer station, said BFI plans to proceed with its permit applications with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
"We’re very, very confident that this is going to go forward," Mr. Marcus said.
Garbage would arrive at the Linden station by barge, be transferred to rail cars and shipped south on the former Reading Line through New Jersey to its final destination in South Carolina and Georgia.
Montgomery Mayor Sondra Moylan, who was not aware of the lawsuit, said, "I’m sure Kris Hadinger, our attorney, will bring that information to us. Until I know exactly what all the parts of the lawsuit are, how they explain it, and the interaction between the two communities, I don’t even want to begin to comment."