New Jersey Residents Show Concern for Environment
Utilities will often claim that the argument about the environmental concerns is simply a way for property owners to obtain more money. However, in Ringwood, New Jersey, the community residents showed up en masse with their objections to a pipeline traversing through a publicly owned protected area.
The Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. is offering the borough $128,000 as compensation for the line, which would run across property belonging to the borough and the Passaic River Coalition. The $400 million pipeline would run parallel to an existing line that the company operates, and would wind through Mahwah, Ringwood and West Milford.
Representatives from the company maintained that the project is safe and would provide jobs for workers in the region. But the project has drawn opposition from some residents and activists.
The pipeline will pump natural gas obtained through hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," a method in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped thousands of feet underground at high pressure to break up rocks that contain natural gas. Many activists believe the process contaminates ground water.
