PLUMSTED – Several weeks after New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) executives announced changes to the proposed Southern Reliability Link pipeline, Plumsted officials are criticizing the utility for what they claim is a lack of transparency.
In an email to residents, Mayor Jack Trotta said a recent NJNG open house was largely insufficient in giving residents a chance to discuss their concerns about the pipeline that is proposed to run through parts of Plumsted.
“While I thank [NJNG] for bringing information to the public, I do not think this format was the proper way to do so,” Trotta wrote.
From 5:30-7:30 p.m. June 11, NJNG hosted an open house at a school in neighboring North Hanover Township during which members of the public had the opportunity to learn about the proposed route for the high-pressure, 30-inch-wide pipeline. Attendees were able to speak directly with NJNG representatives.
However, Trotta said the format was “not acceptable” as a method of informing the public.
“The format they chose to use left everyone to themselves to get whatever answers they could,” the mayor said. “In an open forum, an answer to a question that somebody else asked could trigger a question that you would like to have answered. Everyone gets the same information in an open forum.”
NJNG spokesman Michael Kinney said the company stands by its decision to hold the open house and let attendees seek answers to their questions, rather than employing a format in which they utility’s representatives would have addressed all of the attendees at the same time.
“We have always said we were going to host an open house because we felt it was the best format in which to answer residents’ specific questions,” Kinney said. “We thought it was the best opportunity and way to answer those questions, as well as to help people better understand the project.”
According to NJNG, the Southern Reliability Link is a proposed high-pressure pipeline that would run about 30 miles from Chesterfield Township in Burlington County to Manchester Township in Ocean County to “provide supply diversity and system resiliency, supporting the safe, reliable distribution of natural gas to more than one million people.”
Upper Freehold Township, Jackson and Plumsted would be on the route of the pipeline.
If completed, the project would connect a natural gas system that serves Monmouth, Ocean and Burlington county customers to a new Transco supply point in Chesterfield. The new pipeline will tie into NJNG’s transmission system in Manchester that is near the southern end of the transmission system.
Trotta said NJNG indicated its representatives would visit each town that would be impacted by the pipeline to discuss the project with residents. He said that has not occurred.
“While we understand the need for the transmission line, we believe the local residents who would be affected by the line should be heard before any decisions are made,” he said. “The transmission line, for obvious reasons, needs to be as far away from buildings as possible.”
According to Kinney, however, no such assurances were made to individual municipalities.
“We were not required to [host a meeting], but we felt it was important to have that opportunity to discuss the project with residents” at the open house, he said.
State Assemblyman Ronald Dancer, who is Plumsted’s township administrator, has introduced legislation that seeks to create accountability and oversight for pipeline proposals.
Kinney said NJNG is aware of the legislation and has been working with Dancer and other officials.
“We are in regular communication with Assemblyman Dancer. We also maintain regular communication with the municipalities, as well as the counties, and our goal is to finalize the project … to help better serve our customers,” Kinney said.
Officials said the next opportunity for members of the public to discuss the Southern Reliability Link will be at a meeting of the state Board of Public Utilities on a date to be determined.