Rally Planned Against Proposed NJNG Pipeline in Upper Freehold

Upper Freehold residents opposed to a proposed pipeline by New Jersey Natural Gas are holding a rally at the Township Committee Meeting Tuesday Night, which had to be moved to a larger venue, at Stone Bridge Middle School in Allentown. 

Opponents fear the proposed project is being driven by profits instead of safety.

"Families for Responsible Pipelines has spent most of the holidays spreading the word about this project and planning a rally for the January 6 meeting, before it's too late to make a difference," said Sean Sweeney, in a press release. "We have been urging local, county, and state government to move this pipeline to a location where it will have the least amount of impact on the general population," he said.

The pipeline would provide a second feed to the southern end of NJNG's system to ensure resiliency and reliability, a critical lesson learned during Super Storm Sandy, according to NJNG spokesman Michael Kinney.

"When Sandy came through and we had to curtail service to customers in the barrier island, if there was a secondary feed, some of those customers may have not had their service turned off," said Kinney.

As far as safety concerns, Kinney assured safety is a priority to the Utility, as well as with the proposed pipeline.

"This is going to be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week from our gas control room, there will be remote-controlled valves installed that we have the ability to shut-down the flow of gas if necessary, we'll do annual leak surveys, every month there will be a physical inspection of the system," he said.

NJNG plans to host an open house and address people's concerns once specifics of the projects are determined, according to Kinney.

"We are currently conducting surveys, we are doing our due diligence to identify the best route that has the minimal impact to the community, has minimal impact to the environment and enables us to meet our goal of providing safe, reliable, resilient service," added Kinney.

Tuesday night's Upper Freehold Township Committee is being held at 7 p.m. at Stone Bridge Middle School, 1252 Yardville Allentown Road, in Allentown.