For Immediate Release
January 25, 2013 Contact: Jeff Tittel, Director, 609-558-9100
NJ Sierra Club Joins Court Challenge of TGP Pipeline Today NJ Sierra Club joined the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the NJ Highlands Coalition in requesting an emergency stay of theTennessee Gas Pipeline Companys Northeast Upgrade Project.Today the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave TGP approvals to commence construction, despite significant concerns raised by environmental groups, the USEPA, and the DEP.The groups filed the request in the DC Appellate Court.The stay would prevent construction from moving forward while we are in court challenging the FERC decision.This project is located in one of the most environmentally sensitive areas of New Jersey and through critical water supply watershed lands, including the Monksville Reservoir and Delaware River.
"We are going to court to request a stay on this disastrous pipeline project.We believe this pipeline is the wrong project in the wrong place jeopardizing the drinking supply for the people of North Jersey. FERC, in denying our motion refused to look at our evidence that this project will directly threaten ground and surface waters causing irreversibly damage to the most environmentally sensitive areas of the United States. FERC is not a regulatory commission instead is nothing but a cheerleader for the gas lobby and that is why we are in court," *said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. * The Northeast Upgrade Project will install 18 miles of new pipeline in Sussex, Passaic, and Bergen counties and upgrade existing compressor and meter stations in Sussex and Bergen counties. About fifty percent of the project is located on public lands including High Point State Park, Ringwood State Park, Long Pond Ironworks State Park, and the Ramapo Reservation.The project will cut under the Monksville Reservoir and the Delaware River, both major drinking water supplies.The project will impact numerous historic sites and crtical watershed supply lands.
"The Sierra Club understands how extremely destructive this pipeline will be to one of the most sensitive places in New Jersey and the country. This pipeline will not only destroy precious open space and parkland but will threaten the drinking water supply for millions of people. This pipeline will promote fracking and air pollution from dirty power plants and that is why we are going to court," said *Jeff Tittel*. "As a lifelong resident of Ringwood, I know how devastating this pipeline would be to important environmental resources and that is why we have to seek an injunction to prevent the pipeline from going forward. We have to do the job FERC did not do." The TGP pipeline will carry gas produced by fracking in the Marcellus Shale.Fracking impacts our air, water, and energy policy.Each well that is fracked requires hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and the wastewater produced contains over 700 chemicals.Drilling operations release toxic air emissions and methane, a greenhouse gas twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in our atmosphere.Expanding this pipeline will allow for more fracking in Pennsylvania, impacting water supplies and air quality.
"There is no pipeline project anywhere in the country that is more damaging to the environment.This project not only threatens the water supply for millions of people, it cuts through the largest contiguous broadleaf forest left in New Jersey.This is absolutely the worst place to put such a pipeline and we have to go to court to protect this area.We have to do the job that FERC should have done.We wouldnt put a gas line like this through Yellowstone or Yosemite and this is our Yellowstone and Yosemite, but it is even more important because it is out water supply," said Jeff Tittel.
-- Kate Millsaps Conservation Program Coordinator NJ Chapter of the Sierra Club 609-656-7612