Pinelands Commission Members Booed, Jeered As South Jersey Gas Pipeline Is Approved

The Pinelands Commission Friday morning approved the development of a natural gas pipeline through 15 miles of the protected Forest Management Area, before an angry crowd of about 400 who came to protest, according to app.com.

The proposal needed eight votes to pass and got nine. There was one abstention, by Commission member Frank Hays. Five Commission members voted no.

Former longtime Ocean County administrator Alan W. Avery and Lacey Township Committeeman Gary Quinn voted yes on the pipeline. Avery was appointed by the Ocean County Board of Freeholders and Quinn was appointed by Gov. Christie.

The proposed new pipeline will run approximately 22 miles total underground, from just outside Millville in Maurice River Township, Cumberland County, through Estell Manor to Beesley’s Point in Upper Township, Cape May County, according to South Jersey's website. The pipeline will add a second transmission line which will reinforce the gas system and provide customers with more reliability. It will also repower the B.L. England plant to reinforce the available power supply and reduce air emissions, according to SNJ.

Critics and the New Jersey Sierra Club and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance oppose the project, which they say would impact the Pinelands Forest Management Area area and would violate the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP).

The audience frequent chanted "Do the right thing," right up to the vote.

"We sued you once, we're going to sue you again," yelled Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, after the vote.

New Jersey state troopers stood in the back of the room at the Crown Plaza hotel in Cherry Hill. The room was packed, so about 100 could not get inside, according to app.com.

When the vote was finally tallied, the pipeline needed eight votes to pass and it got nine: chairman Sean Earlen, vice chair Paul Galletta, Alan Avery, Jr. (who was appointed by the Ocean County Board of Freeholders), Bob Barr, Joe Chila, William Brown, Jane Jannarone, Edward McGlinchey and Gary Quinn (an Ocean County man appointed by Gov. Chris Christie). Commissioners Candace McKee Ashmun, Edward Lloyd, Mark Lohbauer, Richard Prickett and D'Arcy Rohan Green voted no. Frank Hays abstained.

South Jersey Gas has pitched the pipeline as minimally invasive to the Pinelands, as well as a source of cleaner burning fuel for the B.L. England coal power plant and a reinforcement of the gas grid for 142,000 customers in the region.

The same projected failed to get Commission approval back in January of 2014.

But things have changed in the Commission's makeup. Gov. Chris Christie, who makes the appointments, changed several of the members whose terms were up.

Christie also removed Lohbauer as chairman in 2016 and replaced him with Earlen. The Governor's Office has denied this was done as response to the 2014 pipeline vote.

Executive Director Nancy Wittenberg, another Christie appointee, had recommended the commissioners approve the project in a 24-page report released last week.

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Image:Patricia A. Miller