Pipelines Across New Jersey

Pipelines are one of the current issues in New Jersey Conservation.

Rosemont is a place where the New Jersey Conservation Foundation has been preserving farmland and open space for over 30 years, the the group Preservation New Jersey has named the Rosemont Rural Agricultural District to its "10 Most Endangered" sites. It is only one of a number of historic properties throughout the state threatened by proposed gas pipelines.

The PennEast Pipeline has been proposed to transport fracked natural gas from Luzerne County, Pa., to a point near Trenton. It would cut through the Rosemont Rural Agricultural District

Other endangered sites include parts of Burlington, Ocean and Monmouth counties along the proposed route of a New Jersey Natural Gas pipeline; parts of Somerset, Hunterdon and Mercer counties that would be crossed by the Transcontinental (TRANSCO) pipeline; and parts of Passaic and Bergen counties along the proposed route of the Tennessee Gas pipeline.

Preservation New Jersey considers these pipelines to be "a short-term solution to a long-term energy supply problem. The negative effects on New Jersey's historical and natural resources will be permanent."

Fracking, Forests, and Endangered Species in Nearby Pennsylvania

The Sierra Club Allegheny Group has put out an alert for concerned citizens in Pennsylvania and neighbors to contact your state representatives and senators if you are opposed to the bills HB 1576 and SB 1047.

These bills are part of the push to drill in the Marcellus Shale area. this includes county parks and state forests.

A recent NPR interview talks about our neighbors in Pennsylvania and the effect on forests due to drilling activity, new roads, and pipelines. Of particular concern is the disturbance of the rare areas of ‘core forests’ deep in the woods. Now the gas industry is seeking to remove restrictions on where they may drill in the forests.

These two bills - HB 1576 and SB 1047 - would move the responsibility of entries on the state endangered Species list from the independent biologists of Game and the Fish and Boat Commissions, to members of the legislature.

Conservationists are also concerned that the bill has a provision to allow environmental permits to be given without consideration of the impact on endangered species.