MAHWAH – A controversial proposal to pipe 400,000 barrels across protected watersheds in North Jersey every day suffered a big setback last week.
That’s because two companies that the owner of the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline told the New York Department of Environmental Conservation that it would use to build pumps at their terminals have disavowed the project.
“Given the almost universal opposition of communities along the pipeline route, it is extremely unlikely that the Pilgrim Pipeline proposal will move forward,” one of the companies, Global Partners of Albany, N.Y., wrote to the New York DEC. “Regardless, Global has no involvement in that proposal.”
The other company, Buckeye, also of Albany, has also disavowed the project.
A plan to build a pipeline to carry oil between Linden and Albany, N.Y., has run into a setback after two companies linked to the project have disavowed it.
Pilgrim hopes to build the 178-mile pipeline between Albany and Linden. While plans have yet to be submitted in New Jersey, documents provided in an application in New York indicate the pipeline would enter through Mahwah, in the Highlands Preservation Area, and pass through Morris, Passaic and Essex counties before making it to Linden in Union County.
Municipalities along the route have banded together in opposition to the project. Last March, people packed Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco’s office to deliver 1,000 petitions against the project.
“With all the opposition from the port, New Jersey’s refineries, the public, and every town along the route, it is clear no one wants this speculative pipeline owned by a management company,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “The failure to get any support for this terrible project shows that Pilgrim should abandon their plans for good.”
Opposition to the project is most pronounced in Mahwah, where the Ramapough Lenape Nation has posted signs and erected several large teepees against on the Ramapo Valley Reservation. In response, the town issued summonses against the tribe for not obtaining the necessary permits and for moving soil without permission.
Mahwah, which gets about 80 percent of its water from aquifers near the pipeline route, said it is taking further steps to guard its supply against the proposal.
“It seems like the practicality of the pipeline is diminishing but our determination to protect drinking water continues,” said Mahwah Mayor Bill Laforet. “We are fighting with a ghost right now, don’t know if and when they are going to file for permits in New Jersey.”
In a statement to NJ Advance Media Monday, Vice President of Pilgrim Pipeline LLC George Bochis said he hopes those in both states realize the pipeline is safer than the current barge system.
“We are confident that state officials in New Jersey and New York will determine that the Pilgrim Pipeline provides citizens with a substantial improvement upon the current reliance on river barges to transport the region’s critical fuels,”Bochis said.” Our project offers a safer and more secure means of transporting these fuels while generating lower greenhouse gas emissions to carry the same amount of product.”
Fausto Giovanny Pinto may be reached at fpinto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @FGPreporting. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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