Date : Tue, 10 Feb 2015 16:27:41 -0500
For Immediate Release
February 10, 2015
Contact Jeff Tittel 609-558-9100
Tonight is the first of 5 Scoping Meetings on the PennEast Pipeline. The PennEast Pipeline is 110 mile pipeline that will bring natural gas from the Marcellus Region of Pennsylvania through Hunterdon and Mercer Counties in New Jersey. The pipeline will be cutting through communities, preserved open space, and farmland. These public Scoping Meetings allow residents and others to voice their concerns about the environmental impacts of this pipeline. Below is The New Jersey Sierra Club's Director Jeff Tittel statement for tonight's hearing:
"The PennEast pipeline will have devastating environmental impacts, cutting a scar through environmentally sensitive land and open spaces. This pipeline will promote fracking, add to air pollution, and safety concerns to the surrounding communities. In spite of what PennEast says the new pipeline route is worse environmentally because it will be cutting through areas that are more environmentally sensitive including more open space, historic sites, and parkland. All together this pipeline will be cutting through 39 parks, 88 waterways, 44 wetlands, and 33 farms and other open space areas."
"We believe that this pipeline violates the Clean Water Act and cannot meet the criteria for 404 permits because the amount of high quality streams, wetlands, and rivers it is crossing through. Many of these streams carry anti-degradation criteria. The route will cut areas with steep slopes having a bigger impact on streams because of siltation and runoff. The new pipeline route will be crossing where the streams are wider than they were before, having a greater impact on streams and flood plains. Many of these streams are C1, meaning it will be impacting some of the highest water quality waterways in the state. Therefore the permit should not be granted."
"There are significant air quality impacts that have not been addressed regarding the pipeline and pumping stations. We do not believe the pipeline would meet the criteria for air quality permits. More than half of the pipeline route is going through public open space. This is land paid for by the tax payers and held in the public trust. This pipeline is going through historic areas and past historic sites. There are areas where General Washington and his army camped and marched including a road that is still intact from the colonial time right outside Lambertville. This pipeline deliberately targets waterways, environmentally sensitive areas and parks. The permit should be rejected. "
"This pipeline is unneeded and unnecessary. There are other pipelines that are permitted or being built along the same route, like Transco, Columbia and TGP. The pipeline will not save consumers money or create jobs, instead it will create negative economic impacts. The pipeline cuts through scenic areas and farmlands impacting tourism and the arts. The tourism industry in the Delware Valley is worth billions of dollars, impacting communities like Lambertville and Frenchtown. The pipeline runs through preserved farmland impacting soil and crops hurting farms financially. The agriculture and fishing industry will be impacted, both are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. For 98 jobs we will ruin the Delaware Valley and all people love about it."
"The only option for this pipeline is a no build option. This is a scoping meeting with the scope of this project being a disaster in the making. This project should be denied, " said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.
Meeting Schedule:
Tuesday February 10, 2015
Time: 6PM
Where: Northampton Community College
3835 Green Pond Rd
Bethlehem, PA 18020
Wednesday February 11, 2015
Time: 6:00 PM
Where: Penn's Peak
325 Maury Road
Jim Thorpe, PA 18229
Thursday February 12, 2015
Time: 6:00 PM
Where: Best Western Hotel & Conference Center
77 E Market Street
Wilkes-Barre, PA
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Time: 6 PM
Where: West Trenton Ballroom
40 W. Upper Ferry Road
West Trenton, New Jersey 08628
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Time: 6 PM
Where: The Grand Colonial
86 Route 173 West
Hampton, New Jersey 08827