Pilgrim Pipeline controversy approaches Plainfield

Sierra Club map of proposed pipeline in our area.
(Click to enlarge or print.)

News of the approaching Pilgrim Pipeline project is gradually seeping into the Plainfield area. Will it bring controversy with it?

Pilgrim has incorporated a NJ subsidiary to develop a 178-mile double pipeline that will run between Linden and Albany, New York (see their website here). The southbound pipeline will bring Bakken crude to Linden for processing; the northbound pipeline will return refined petroleum products to Albany for distribution throughout the northeast from there.

Quite a number of New Jersey towns have become alarmed at the prospect of the takings of local properties for the pipeline and in the bullying manner of Pilgrim in getting surveys for the right-of-way.

Hearing that the proposal through this portion of New Jersey is to use PSEG transmission line rights-of-way, I wondered whether that means the lines that have recently been upgraded by PSEG with the monster pylons which march along parallel to Terrill Road and can be seen passing over the Sears Auto store on Route 22 and Le Grande Avenue just east of the Plainfield line.

The pipeline would pass through densely populated areas of the state, as well as impacting wetlands and woods, according to the Sierra Club (see their website here).

Communities are also concerned about the possible dangers to aquifers through which the pipeline will pass.

This past week alone, Woodbridge, Chatham Boro, Pequannock and Bloomingdale passed resolutions opposing the pipeline, according to the Ledger (see here).

They join the Passaic County freeholders and Watchung, Chatham Township, Madison, East Hanover, Mahwah, Montville, Oakland, Parsippany and Kinnelon which previously passed similar measures.

Those interested in following this issue as it develops will want to check out the following --

• Facebook page of Coalition Against the Pilgrim Pipeline (CAPP) here;
  
  
• Website of CAPP here; and a
  
  
• Sample resolution for municipalities developed by the Sierra Club here.

If the pipeline goes along the projected route (see map above), it would run parallel to the entire length of Terrill Road, and close to Plainfield's Cushing Basin wetlands.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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