By Joseph Sapia
HOLMDEL – The township Zoning Board is to continue a hearing Wednesday, May 18, on New Jersey Natural Gas’ proposal to build a gas line regulator on the site of the Holmdel Road solar farm at Hop Brook Lane.
The regulator, which looks like a boiler and pipes, reduces the pounds-per-square-inch (PSI) of gas pressure in the line in a process that includes a heater to keep the line from freezing. The utility must reduce pressure in the feed line to safely connect with customers, according to New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG).
The company is before the zoners because it needs three variances: one, to place the regulator as another principal use on the solar farm site; two, because the regulator would sit only about 90 feet from the across-the street property owner, rather than the required approximately 385 feet, in this “buffer zone” between residential and non-residential use; and three, fencing will be 8-feet-tall, or 2 feet higher than allowed.
But the resident who lives across from the proposed regulator, Falguni Patel, and the Holmdel-based Citizens for Informed Land Use (CILU), have raised various concerns.
If the town has a buffer zone between residential and non-residential uses, according to Regina Criscione, a spokesman for CILU, why allow the regulator?
“On one side of the block, it may be commercial,” said Patel, who lives on Hop Brook Lane with her husband, Jag Desai, and their two children. “On the other side, residential.”
And the Patel-Desai house is the closest residence.
Other concerns raised by Patel and CILU include what could happen if a motor vehicle hits the regulator, the firefighting response to a gas fire in the area, and any emissions the regulator gives off.
“It’s emitting stuff, whether they say it’s toxic or not,” Patel said.
When Patel bought the property a few years ago, the land across the street was up for sale. In the year it took to build her house, Patel learned the solar farm was going in, she said.
Patel said she supports solar energy and uses it, along with geo-thermal engineering (or using the ground’s heating and cooling power), to run her 6,000-square-foot house.
“I was OK with it,” said Patel, speaking of the solar farm. “(But) I was disappointed not enough was going to be done with aesthetics (on the site).”
NJNG, on the other hand, says it has already compromised – for example, with an existing earthen berm between the solar panels and Holmdel Road.
“We are keeping more of that berm than the original plan and adding our own berm,” said Marc Panaccione, a NJNG engineer.
Michael M. Kinney, a NJNG spokesman, said the company has been “working with local officials to amend” the plans.
“The purpose of the regulator station is to provide service,” Kinney said. “Safety is the most important thing we do.”
NJNG is to rent property a piece of the OCI Solar Power solar farm for the regulator. NJNG will have a 15-foot-wide gravel road along the solar panel fence to access the 75-foot by 75-foot regulator site. The regulator site will have an 8-foot-tall fence – the same height as the fence around the solar panels – and have wood-slat screening as a component.
“It’s mostly below ground piping,” said Panaccione, speaking of the regulator.
Heat vents will be 12- to 15-feet-tall, but buffered from view, Kinney said.
NJNG’s berm will be 2-1/2-feet-tall, topped with evergreen and deciduous plantings ranging from about 2-1/2-feet- to 3-feet-tall at the lower end of planting to about 24-feet- to 30-feet-tall at the higher end of planting. Some of the vegetation could reach average heights of 40 to 50 feet, according to NJNG.
“It’s a pretty decent mix of landscaping,” Panaccione said.
As for emissions, the only thing coming from the regulator will be safe heat emissions , mostly water vapor and some carbon dioxide, Kinney said.
In terms of safety, the regulator area will be protected by traffic-diverting posts and a guard rail, according to NJNG. Also, it will be at least 40 feet from the roadway, according to NJNG.
As for a fire, a “natural gas fire, you don’t put out with a fire truck,” Panaccione said. “You turn it off.”
Gas shutoffs are up and down the transmission line, according to NJNG.
The transmission line is monitored continuously and its flow can be controlled remotely, Kinney said.
The regulator results from a 2011-to-2012 upgrade of the gas transmission system between nearby Route 520 and the Route 36 corridor to the north, according to NJNG.
“We’ve been looking for a place to place this station,” Panaccione said.
The May 18 meeting is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Town Hall. It is a continuation of a hearing from February.
Patel feels the gas regulator will move forward.
“I want to fight it, I really do, but I feel this is just a show,” Patel said.
