The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection denied the application for Williams Transcontinental’s (Transco) Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline, a project that would have cut through the heart of the Raritan Bay.
Despite the positive outcome, Clean Ocean Action executive director Cindy Zipf said the organization isn’t celebrating just yet.
“It’s a semi-victory,” Zipf said, referring to the DEP’s dismissal without prejudice, meaning the application can return before the state agency at any point in the future. “There’s no question the DEP stood with the people of New Jersey, but they did leave the door open. And I have no doubt Transco will be back, like the Terminator.”
Following the denial of the pipeline application by New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, Zipf said Transco resubmitted their application within 48 hours. The company has not resubmitted in New Jersey.
Specifically the NJDEP denied the project’s land-use elements, including a compressor station in Franklin Township, a pipeline in Sayreville and Old Bridge and another section of pipeline in the Raritan Bay.
According to a statement issued by the DEP, the application did not demonstrate “a compelling public need.”
The DEP also indicated that Transco’s proposed dredging could negatively impact surface water quality in Bayshore waters.
“Since the ’90s, community organizations and government at every level have worked to ensure our coastal waters are not the butt of every joke on late night television and in paper headlines like they were ’70s and ’80s,” Middletown Mayor Tony Perry said. “This treasure has been restored and that work can’t be reversed on our watch. We can’t let this off our radar, because it can come back.”
