NJ Agency Proposes Natural Gas Pipeline Through Liberty State Park

It is not a particularly attractive parcel, a less than one-acre strip of grass running adjacent to the New Jersey Turnpike, albeit a tiny part of one of the nation’s most visited state parks in a setting with a bird’s eye view of the spectacular Manhattan skyline.

But yesterday, officials from Jersey City and conservation groups at a hearing in the park railed at a proposed lease between the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Texas Eastern Transmission L.P. to divert 0.93 acres of Liberty State Park to allow the company to build a natural gas pipeline into New York City.

The pipeline project, known as Spectra Energy, is one of several natural gas pipeline expansions spurred by the discovery of huge deposits of the fossil fuel in Pennsylvania and New York. Like others that have been proposed, it cuts through land that has been preserved as open space through taxpayer funds, a practice critics say is a violation of the public trust to protect those lands.

They also complain the state is getting a bad deal, even though the 20-year lease between the company and DEP will deliver $2.279 million for the diversion of parkland, money that will be used to fund green-oriented projects in a park visited by five million people each year.

“It’s unconscionable that the state of New Jersey and Green Acres would contemplate giving up this land,’’ said Jeff Kaplowitz, a lifelong resident of Jersey City, who recalled when the park was just a bunch of weeds. “This is the worst deal I’ve ever seen.’’

Such sentiments have been a recurring theme as natural gas pipelines and high-voltage electric power lines have been proposed and pushed by utilities and power companies through public preserved lands. Foes say it is because it is the cheapest way for the companies to expand the state’s gas and electric infrastructure, a policy endorsed by the Christie administration.

With a more modernized gas and electric infrastructure, the administration believes it will drive down costs to those who heat their homes with the fuel, driving down electric bills as well, which now are among the highest in the nation.

The Spectra project has the added disadvantage of trying to build a new gas pipeline through the nation’s most densely populated county. The proposed route of the 16-mile pipeline, runs from Staten Island to Jersey City and then back into New York City, although company officials say the proposed route does not cross residential property along its entire 16 miles.

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