The New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association and Friends of Princeton Open Space have asked the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to stop construction immediately of the Transcontinental Pipe Line Company’s Leidy Southeast Expansion Project.
The groups announced their appeal in a press release Thursday afternoon.
The groups filed an appeal challenging the permits for the pipeline on May 8, and asked the court on June 8 to enjoin the construction of the line. The groups argued in papers to the court that the pipeline — extending through Hunterdon, Somerset and Mercer counties — not only jeopardizes regional water quality, but gravely threatens protected wetlands.
“The Leidy Southeast Expansion Project is doing damage today and must be stopped,” said Michele S. Byers, executive director of New Jersey Conservation Foundation. “There is too much at stake for the quality of our water, and the integrity of our preserved lands, to let this and other proposed pipelines continue to proliferate throughout New Jersey without planning, safeguards, and a clear demonstration of how these projects truly meet a public need.”
With bulldozers already tearing up the landscape, an immediate halt to the work is critically important to stop the ongoing environmental damage while the court considers the challenge to the state’s permits. In Princeton, the pipeline is impacting the ecosystem of the Ridge. In the Sourland Mountains, the pipeline impacts the headwaters of the Raritan watershed, which provides drinking water to over one million people.
The appeal was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and seeks to overturn construction permits issued by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). The groups argue that the pipeline permits do not comply with the state’s laws and regulations protecting streams and wetlands and that all construction should be halted pending the court’s decision on the appeal.
The NJDEP permits allow Transco to bulldoze right up to the edge of 50 water bodies, in buffers that are protected under state law and regulation. NJDEP has acknowledged in the past that such buffers are vital to the health of wetlands and to water quality.
“Construction of the Leidy Line is damaging buffers along our streams and wetlands that could have helped protect these waters from polluted storm water runoff,” added Jim Waltman, executive director of Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association. “The permits should have required that these buffers be protected to minimize pollution of these streams and wetlands.”
“We felt compelled to act, as we’ve witnessed the heartbreaking destruction wrought by this project on the forests and streams in Princeton,” said Wendy Mager, president of Friends of Princeton Open Space. “The work underway threatens to undo the benefits of dredging the lakes in the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve and preserving land along the Stony Brook. Sadly, the NJDEP did not impose and enforce appropriate proactive permit conditions, instead undermining our open space for the benefit of a private conglomerate.”
The appeal has the potential to set precedent for environmental protection on all future pipelines in New Jersey.
The Leidy expansion is just one of a series of pipelines proposed to cross waterways, farms and forests in New Jersey.
