By Sunayana Prabhu
HOLMDEL – Several residents are enraged that New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) has moved ahead with the construction of a new gas regulator station, dismissing the township committee’s request to pause its installation while an appeal works its way through the courts.
NJNG has cited “icing issues” with its existing gas regulator located underground at the Vonage property on Holmdel Road and has been urging township officials to authorize its replacement with a bigger gas regulator at a new location. The request was twice denied by the township’s zoning board, a decision that the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) recently overrode.
The township is currently appealing BPU’s decision in the Appellate Division of the state Superior Court.
The new gas regulator site is located north of the Vonage site, at the Holmdel Executive Center at 960 Holmdel Road, next to a solar farm. It is in close proximity to state-preserved farmlands and residential neighborhoods. The property is owned by Holmdel Ventures LLC.
“Our community has done everything in its power to fight this,” said Holmdel Mayor DJ Luccarelli. “Unfortunately, the BPU has overridden everything that we were fighting for.”
According to the township’s statement June 22, the governing body, consistent with zoning board denials, “filed a Request for Leave to File an Emergent Appeal, asking the Appellate Court to put the installation on hold pending the outcome of the appeal.”
“The Appellate Court recently denied the requested stay and NJNG has moved forward with the installation of the gas regulator equipment,” Luccarelli said.
Currently, NJNG is utilizing a temporary station. Since it is a public utility, it was not required to obtain construction permits from the township to move ahead with its project but if the township wins its appeal, township officials expect that NJNG would be ordered to remove the regulator station.
“Both the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and administrative law judge in this matter have agreed with NJNG that this is an important and necessary project that is in the public interest to benefit Holmdel residents and other customers in the area with safe, reliable lifeline natural gas service,” Michael Kinney, director of corporate communications at New Jersey Resources, said in an email to The Two River Times June 26.
“This is a problem that they (NJNG) created,” said Holmdel resident Kin Gee during a call with The Two River Times. Gee serves as president of the citizens’ group CHARGE – Consumers Helping Affect Regulation of Gas & Electric – and has been fighting against what he sees as the utility’s overreach for years.
He noted the gas company’s plan dates back to 2011 when it won approval to replace a 10-inch gas pipeline with a 16-inch pipeline at the Vonage site, increasing the pipeline’s volume by 250% and significantly increasing its operating pressure.
The freezing issue cited by NJNG is an “exaggerated” problem, Gee said, that NJNG has “somehow managed to live with for five, six years.” He argued that it could be fixed “in literally a handful of days” and the current regulator is “adequate.”
The ultimate goal of NJNG, Gee speculated, is to export the gas overseas by installing “a terminal in the middle of Raritan Bay and New York Harbor to be able to export liquefied natural gas to Europe and elsewhere. So, it’s really a commercial undertaking.”
In a February 2020 petition filed in the public interest against NJNG’s project, Gee wrote: “This is a self-imposed hardship by NJNG. This is not necessary for the service, convenience or welfare of the public as required under N.J.S.A. 40:55D-19, but rather the commercial and corporate desire by NJNG to push the abundantly available fracked gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey for the use and benefit outside New Jersey.”
Kinney defended NJNG’s new permanent regulator station, saying its construction is necessary to ensure “safe, reliable service to our customers in Holmdel and the surrounding communities.” He added that the regulator station is “necessary to reduce gas pressure between the existing transmission system in Holmdel and our distribution system and maintain system integrity.”
But according to Kim Weigand-Casola, owner of Fox Hollow Vineyards and Casola Farms, “It’s not for the good of the people. It’s for ulterior motives.”
“The bottom line is selling gas,” she said, and the gas company, with “giant pipelines” underground, has “just plowed through Holmdel.”
Weigand-Casola’s vineyards, a state-preserved farmland, sits across from the gas regulator site where construction has already begun. “Just a week ago,” she said, “a large recycling truck ran off the road, hit a tree. Had it been off by another two feet it would have been right on top of that regulator… and there would have been a giant explosion.”
Holmdel Road currently has a 50-mile-per-hour speed limit.
In addition to these safety concerns, Weigand-Casola said she is worried methane, a “byproduct of these heat stacks,” is going to damage her vineyard. “I have concerns about my crop. The grapes are very, very sensitive.”
And, she said, “We have brooks around here (that) go right to the Swimming River Reservoir. Plus, we are on an aquifer.” Weigand-Casola said she hired her own lawyer for a while, but the matter has been going on for almost a decade and, “I just got burned out fighting them.”
In the township’s statement, the mayor noted that the township “continues to litigate this matter on behalf of its residents.”
“No options were left on the table, and there is no more that we could have done for our residents that we haven’t done,” said Luccarelli. “There will be a decision from the Appellate Court at some point in the future, and we look forward to that result.”
The article originally appeared in the June 29 – July 5, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
