SJ Utility Gets Preliminary Approval For Pipeline Through Pinelands
By David Madden
TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) -- A utility's second attempt to put a natural gas pipeline along roads through the New Jersey Pinelands has received regulatory approval, at least on one level.
The state Board of Public Utilities approved two changes to South Jersey Gas's plan for a 22 mile pipeline from Maurice River Township down to Beesley's Point. One sets up an interconnection to existing lines outside the preserve.
Bob Fatzinger, a utility Senior Vice President, says the other restricts the proposed pipeline's use. "We will not be able to use the pipeline to connect new customers in the forest area," says Fatzinger, "which addresses the concern of the pipeline being a source of economic development."
Environmentalists and conservationists succeeded in January 2014 in blocking construction of the 100 million dollar project by getting the Pinelands Commission to deadlock on the question with a 7-7 vote.
Fatzinger hopes these changes will meet with the Commission's approval.
"We are contending that the pipeline does meet the requirements of the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan and our filing, we believe, supports that assertion."
There's no word on when the Commission might act. Their approval would be required before the BPU could issue construction permits for the project, which Fatzinger hopes to begin early next year. It would take 18 months to complete and would be constructed along existing roads.
The line is meant to serve a single customer, a power plant that wants to convert from coal to natural gas.