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WEST AMWELL: Two sides cross swords at open house on pipeline

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Hundreds endured a cold, drizzly rain Thursday, Nov. 13, to seek details and ask questions about the PennEast natural gas pipeline, which is proposed to cut across southern Hunterdon and northern Mercer counties.
It was the only open house on the project scheduled to be held in New Jersey by PennEast Pipeline Company and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The two-hour event was held in South Hunterdon Regional High School’s gymnasium.
There was no program, and no opportunity for statements or for questions the entire audience could hear. About 500 people sought out tables with displays on various elements of the work (such as safety, operations, the environment, construction, restoration), or sit with representatives at computer terminals to call up maps that showed a rough idea of the proposed route and could be focused down to an individual property.
The 108-mile-long PennEast pipeline would cut a 125-foot-wide path from near Wilkes-Barre, Pa. It would come across private property, through forests and farms, across streams and rivers, as well as land preserved with taxpayer dollars to remain as protected open space.
There will be no opportunity for residents to access this natural gas, opponents claim.
To date, 14 municipalities have adopted resolutions opposing the pipeline, opponents said. The municipalities include Lambertville, Milford, Princeton, Pennington, Frenchtown and Alexandria, Kingwood, Hopewell, Delaware, Holland and West Amwell townships.
A company spokesman said there were 68 blue-shirted, name-tagged Penn East and affiliated gas company employees standing ready to direct people to tables with people to handle specific questions.
There are also knots of operating engineer union members wearing buttons that proclaimed, "Yes! I support jobs and clean energy." The union members would benefit through the jobs to build the pipeline.
Landowners and citizens opposed to the PennEast pipeline held a press conference prior to the open house and set up under tents near the school entrance to distribute literature and anti-pipeline lawn signs.
Opponents criticized the nature of the event.
"It’s an open house, but a closed process," said Jeff Tittel, director o f the NJ Sierra Club and a Lambertville resident. "The public cannot really get questions answered. . . This will produce more hot air than the pipeline has gas. People who object to the pipeline and its impact cannot get up and present their concerns. This is a monologue, not a dialogue, put on by PennEast."
Maya van Rossum, director of the Delaware Riverkeeper environmental organization, said, "These open houses are carefully crafted to divide and conquer the public. They allow the pipeline companies to share differing information with each attendee based on what they think will sell best, and to share the pretty pictures and pretty information that fail to provide an accurate picture of the devastating harm pipelines inflict on communities and the environment."
She encouraged people to hear about "the true impacts" of pipelines at community meetings "where farmers, land conservancies, public park visitors, residents, municipal officials, environmentalists and even those who have worked in the industry have all shared consistent stories of deception and harm," she said.
Patricia Kornick, a community relations spokesperson for PennEast, said there will be other "outreach events," such as open houses, smaller meetings and club presentations.
"We’re three months and two days into a three-year comprehensive review process," she said. The company announced the project on Aug. 11 and its pre-filing process was accepted by FERC on Oct. 11, she said.
She said the formal application, with a more precise route, will probably come sometime in the third quarter of 2015.
Opponents have raised questions over safety, evacuation zones, variable amounts of compensation, and environmental impacts, like deforestation; damage to wetlands, streams and rivers; threats to protected migratory birds and wildlife; potential contamination to residential wells and drinking water from the Delaware and Lehigh rivers; and worsened air quality due to emissions.
"The impacts of the PennEast pipeline, should it be approved by FERC, would be devastating on the fragile ecosystems of the Sourland Mountain region in West Amwell and Hopewell townships," said Caroline Katmann, executive director of the Sourland Conservancy.
They also say the pipeline would only encourage expansion of reaching the underground natural gas by a process called fracking, which forces the release of gas trapped in underground shale layers by injecting water and chemicals.
"Many of the New Jersey open spaces that Penn East is targeting are narrow, environmentally sensitive areas where endangered species and national treasures, such as bald eagles, are just starting to get a toehold," said Patty Cronheim, a Hopewell Township resident. "The 125-foot-wide construction zone through these areas would not only damage them, it would destroy them. They would be gone, and NJ taxpayers would still be paying for them."
In a statement released by opponents, Nancy Wilson, a resident of Holland Township, said, "This will not bring lots of money into our area. Money will be paid as a onetime fee to property owners for the easement. There will be a decrease in property values for all the properties near the pipeline. Also, there is a very little revenue for the local governments, or the county. If this pipeline is built, we will be left with the cost of increased emergency services, necessary if there is an accident."
Any economic benefit would be short-lived and confined to the 7-9 month construction period) and small, opponents maintain.