NY/NJ Baykeeper, Food & Water Watch Sponsor Meeting to Alert Public to Significant Impacts to Raritan Bay
A public meeting concerning the proposed Williams Transco Pipeline is scheduled for Thursday, July 13 from 6:30 – 8:30pm at Keyport High School Cafeteria. Members of the public are invited to learn more about the proposed pipeline and the impacts it would have on public health, the economy, and the environment.
WHO: Area residents, Food & Water Watch, NY/NJ Baykeeper, ReThink Energy
WHAT: Public Meeting about Raritan Bay Pipeline
WHEN: July 13, 6:30 PM
WHERE: Keyport High School – 351 Broad Street, Keyport, NJ
Williams Transco has proposed a new 23.4-mile pipeline project to expand its existing Transco transmission system to transport natural gas from the Marcellus Shale region through Raritan Bay to New York. If built, the pipeline will disrupt fishing, boating. and recreational activities for New Jersey Bayshore residents. Construction of the pipeline would also disturb up to 14,000 acres of habitat for clams, horseshoe crabs, fish, and other marine animals and open water. The project is proposed to be completed by the end of 2019.
Speakers at the public meeting will include Debbie Mans (NY/NJ Baykeeper), Junior Romero (Food & Water Watch), Barbara Cuthbert (Franklin Taskforce Steering Committee), and Patty Cronheim (ReThink Energy). A panel discussion will follow.
Computers will be provided for any members of the public that would like to file to intervene in the project. Becoming an intervenor gives legal standing in this proceeding. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is required to address any future comments an intervenor send about the project.
“We are hosting this public forum because we do not believe Williams Transco has done a good job reaching out to the public along the Raritan Bayshore about the significant impacts of this proposed pipeline,” said Debbie Mans, Executive Director and Baykeeper, NY/NJ Baykeeper. Residents of the Raritan Bayshore and central New Jersey are subject to all the impacts of this project that is designed to serve New York residents. This project represents a step backwards for our energy policy and the environment by committing the region to more fossil fuel infrastructure that may be unnecessary or make it more difficult for renewables to enter the market.”
“New Jersey residents and the environment stand to lose too much from this unnecessary fracked gas project,” said Junior Romero, Central New Jersey Organizer, Food and Water Watch. “A broken federal regulatory system and a Governor’s administration who has never seen a pipeline they don’t like have forced us to bring these fights to the local level. It’s time for the Garden State to transition to 100% clean energy and get OFF Fossil Fuels.”
“The time is now to become involved in efforts to stop the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project of Williams/Transco to protect and preserve the health, well-being and safety of all life in and around the Raritan Bay as well as in Central New Jersey and nearby communities,” said Barbara Cuthbert, Franklin Township Taskforce Steering Committee. “In addition to the real possibility of explosions and leaks, air and noise pollution from a new gas-fired compressor station near an active mining quarry, increased speed of fracked gas moving through aging pipelines, and disturbances to life, recreation and livelihood in and around the Raritan Bay from Old Bridge/Sayreville to an offshore point three miles south of Rockaway Beach NY, are dangerous actions that should not be allowed in the Garden State.”
