Preserved farmland in Bordentown Township could be affected by the proposed Williams/Transco gas pipeline project.
By: William Wichert
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP As township officials have feared over the last few weeks, the proposed expansion of the New Jersey Turnpike is pushing the proposed Williams/Transco gas pipeline project farther into neighboring communities, putting one stretch of preserved farmland in jeopardy.
According to several letters filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), turnpike officials have requested that Williams/Transco realign the 36-inch pipeline about 50 feet to the west to make way for extra southbound driving lanes between Old York Road and Mansfield Road West in Mansfield Township.
In a Jan. 6 letter to FERC, which is currently evaluating the proposed pipeline project, Marg Camardello, manager of certificates and tariffs for Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corp., wrote that the company does not oppose the realignment, but that doing so would force the company to cross over some preserved farmland.
Although Mansfield officials have voiced their support for both proposed projects, Bordentown officials have clearly stated their own opposition to both proposals over the last several months. The proposed 3.77-mile pipeline route would traverse both municipalities.
"We need to get people’s attention and we need to add what our concerns are and what our residents’ concerns are," said Township Committeeman Jerry Boyer. "The ripple effect is a bigger intrusion on these (farmland) properties."
Mr. Boyer said this latest development only confirms the fears expressed by the Township Committee at a Dec. 6 meeting with Williams/Transco officials, when the company representatives originally said the proposed turnpike expansion would not affect the pipeline route.
"It makes us wonder how candid they’ve been with the information they’ve had before us," Mr. Boyer said. "It makes us wonder what else is out there that we don’t know."
Chris Stockton, a spokesman for Williams, an Oklahoma-based engineering firm, said the company began discussions with the New Jersey Turnpike Authority about a year ago in regard to the expansion plans, but that specific drawings of the expansion were not available until recently.
Stephen M. Buente, the turnpike’s supervising engineer, wrote in a Dec. 21 letter to Patrick J. McClusky of Williams/Transco that the company did not become aware of the turnpike’s realignment request until a meeting on Dec. 16, about three weeks after the Township Committee meeting.
In her letter to FERC, Ms. Camardello wrote that Williams/Transco is willing to revise the pipeline route, but noted that this shift would move the pipeline onto the 65-acre Winzinger Farm in Mansfield Township.
Although the company owns development rights on part of this property, a portion of the land has been preserved under the state Farmland Preservation Program, protecting it from nonagricultural development, Ms. Camardello wrote.
In order to realign the route and gain access to the preserved area, Williams/Transco would then be forced to file a condemnation lawsuit against Burlington County, which owns the development rights to the property, and the State Agricultural Development Committee.
"In this case, if Transco moves its easement in a westward direction to accommodate the Turnpike’s future widening plans, Transco would need the right of eminent domain for the realigned location of the easement (development rights)," Ms. Camardello wrote.
SADC spokeswoman Hope Gruzlovic said this scenario is exactly what Williams/Transco did in 2002, when the company filed a condemnation lawsuit to exercise the right of eminent domain to build a pipeline along four preserved farms in Warren and Hunterdon counties.
The company and the counties, which owned the development rights to the farms, ultimately reached a settlement in federal court, Ms. Gruzlovic said. "We don’t like to see these things. We hope going to a preserved farm is a last resort," she said. "But in the cases that it happens, the public is compensated."
Ms. Gruzlovic said the SADC has received correspondence from Williams/Transco over the last few months that provided general information about its plans, but that the state has not yet been contacted about a possible condemnation lawsuit.
Aside from impact on the farmland, the realignment would not have any significant effects on the environment surrounding the pipeline, Ms. Camardello wrote in her letter. In its own environmental assessment of the proposed project in November, FERC officials found that the entire project does not pose many harmful effects to the environment.
Tamara Young-Allen, a FERC spokeswoman, said the commission was still in the process of evaluating the Williams/Transco application, but that the company would not have to file an amendment to its application for the new realignment plans.
"If they’re dealing in the same property or potential right-of-way, they would not have to file an amendment," said Ms. Young-Allen, who said she could not estimate when FERC would make its final decision on the application.

