This coming semester, Judith Joan Sullivan, Founder and Chairwoman of the Ramapough Conservancy has agreed to assist Professor Michael Edelstein http://ww2.ramapo.edu/sshs/faculty/Edelstein.aspx in his teachings at Ramapo College. The Ramapough Conservancy will be the “client” for a course on Environmental Assessment. Enrollment in the course doubled since last semester, during which course the students studied the Mahwah Crossroads project, and their work made newspaper headlines. In so far as she is also a trustee for the NJ Highlands Coalition, and because Professor Edelstein highly values the work of the NJ Highlands Coalition, the Coalition will serve as a “client” with the Ramapough Conservancy as well, and the class will be studying the pipeline projects and their impacts to the Ramapo Mountains, and the Highlands generally. The work product becomes the property of Ramapough Conservancy and the NJ Highlands Coalition to benefit the work they do going forward. An analysis of the cumulative impacts of the pipeline projects, and, additional mapping work of historic sites in the Ramapos will be included in the class project.
Below is an outline of the class offered at Ramapo College:
Environmental Assessment Spring Class 2013
ENST 414 Environmental Assessment and
ENST 418 Field Project in Environmental Assessment
RFP for Spring Semester Project
This semester, the New Jersey Highlands Coalition and the Ramapough Conservancy have agreed to serve as clients for your project. This RFP represents their joint work product prepared in conjunction with Dr. Edelstein.
Background
The New Jersey Highlands Coalition and the Ramapough Conservancy, Inc., a New Jersey Non-Profit Corporation, have been working tirelessly to protect the natural and cultural resources of northwestern New Jersey that are threatened by pipeline development projects. The New Jersey Highlands Coalition works to protect, restore, and enhance the water and other natural and cultural resources of New Jersey’s Highlands and the Ramapough Conservancy was formed to help protect, enhance, and promote the extraordinary region of the Ramapo Mountains. The Ramapough Conservancy works with and is a member organization of the NJ Highlands Coalition.
The New Jersey Highlands region encompasses 1,343 square miles, 859, 358 acres, across seven counties and 88 municipalities in northwestern New Jersey. In 2004, the Highlands region was designated by the New Jersey Legislature with the passage of the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act; and in 2008, the Highlands Regional Master Plan was developed to guide preservation and development efforts in the region. The Ramapo Mountains are located in the northeastern part of the Highlands and extend into New York State. Beyond their ecological and scenic values, the historical importance of this region is only now becoming recognized. For example: Ringwood Manor was among America’s first conglomerates and was responsible for making the irons chains and cannonballs that helped defend the colonists in the American Revolution. George Washington used Ramapo-Valley Road on his march from Suffern, NY to Morristown, NJ. In addition, the mountains have a rich Native American history, and yet little is known about the extent of these historic and cultural resources. The Ramapo Mountains have not yet been fully mapped to document its numerous historic and cultural resources.
There are countless small and large development projects that threaten valuable resources within the Highlands; but none as comprehensive as the federally regulated, multi-state, energy infrastructure projects – specifically pipeline projects. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is responsible for the approval and regulation of these large projects. There are serious deficiencies in the reviews. Pipeline companies “segment” their applications by separating their project proposals into smaller sections, called loops (“loop” refers to a segment of pipeline installed adjacent to an existing pipeline and connecting to it at both ends). By presenting a smaller-scale project to FERC, companies are usually only required to conduct a less-extensive Environmental Assessment instead of an Environmental Impact Statement. Moreover, FERC is approving these piecemeal projects and has not required companies to produce reports that thoroughly detail the cumulative impacts of their own projects, let alone the cumulative impacts of all such projects on the region.
Currently, there are two pipeline projects that traverse the Highlands that have received FERC approval: the Transcontinental Pipeline Company’s (Transco), Northeast Supply Link Project in the Southern Highlands and Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company’s (TGP) Northeast Upgrade Project in the northern Highlands. [add live links]
Transco is proposing to construct a 6.8 mile pipeline composed of a 42-inch diameter pipe through the southern Highlands in Clinton, Franklin, and Union townships in Hunterdon County and upgrade an existing compressor station in Essex County. This proposal is part of the Northeast Supply Link Project which will upgrade over 25 miles of existing pipeline through New Jersey. This proposed pipeline will scar some of the most sensitive and scenic land in the New Jersey Highlands. It threatens our invaluable water supply, critical wildlife habitat, our communities and our public health and safety. Transco has not yet begun construction on this loop.
The Northeast Upgrade Project proposes to construct 18 miles of 30-inch diameter pipe in Sussex, Passaic, and Bergen counties and upgrade an existing compressor station in Bergen County. The project would impact a significant amount of public land in the Highlands region including the Ramapo County Reservation, Ringwood State Park, and Long Pond Ironworks State Park. TGP has completed construction on its most recent project, the 300 Line, and has preliminary approval from FERC to begin construction on the Northeast Upgrade Project.
Those are only two of the active pipeline projects. In addition, Algonquin Gas Company is preparing to expand its gas pipeline along the crest of the Ramapo Mountains from Pompton Lakes in the Highlands to the New York state border.
A number of other grassroots organizations including, but not limited to, Fight the Pipe, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch, 350nj.org, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, North Jersey Pipeline Walkers, and Save the Park are working to stop the pipeline construction in the Highlands. The New Jersey Highlands Coalition has been working to stop these pipeline projects from the beginning, and more recently the Ramapough Conservancy has joined the fight. These groups have helped to foster a grassroots movement to protect northern New Jersey’s resources; they have submitted many pages of comments to federal, state, county, and municipal regulatory agencies, and have even enlisted the help of law firms including the Columbia Environmental Law Clinic, Eastern Environmental Law Center, and EarthJustice.
The 2013 Environmental Assessment class is invited to form a consulting firm, prepare a proposal in response to this RFP and then, perform an Environmental Impact Study of pipeline impacts in the Highlands Region for the New Jersey Highlands Coalition and the Ramapough Conservancy’s review and consideration. If significant impacts are documented, the work will assist us in future arguments for a full Environmental Impact Statement and in achieving project mitigation.
Request for Proposal
The New Jersey Highlands Coalition and the Ramapough Conservancy seek a report that assesses a wide range of potential consequences of pipeline siting, construction and operation and, particularly, evaluates the cumulative impacts that all of these projects, past and present, have on the Highlands region. The Coalition and the Conservancy are looking for a product that will show the impacts that each project will have on such critical values for the region as water and cultural resources, as well as the total cumulative impacts of these projects. The report will establish a baseline of impact to which, we will be able to argue, any new proposals will add.
As part of this final document, the Coalition and the Conservancy would like the following:
- An interactive GIS map that shows existing and proposed pipeline infrastructure within the Highlands region.
- Documentation of historic and cultural sites in proximity to pipeline infrastructure within the Highlands. Two maps could be developed: one that shows publically known sites (such as Ringwood Manor) and another that shows confidential sites (such as Native American sites) which would not be made public.
As outlined by the NEPA mandates, an analysis of the cumulative impacts of all existing and proposed pipelines on the socio-cultural, ecological and physical resources in the New Jersey Highlands, to specifically include, at a minimum:
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- Total acreage impacted by existing Rights of Way, any proposed expansions, temporary and permanent “Work Space,” compressor station sites, and existing and proposed access roads. Number of water bodies crossed and total loss of forest cover, wetlands and riparian habitat
- Federal and State recognized Threatened and Endangered species that have been and will be impacted with additional pipeline construction.
- Impacts to recreational areas, including closures, safety, and viewsheds.
- Impacts to the aesthetic quality of the entire region.
- Impacts to affected residents, workers and land owners.
- Number of people that will be negatively affected and the nature of the impacts should these pipeline projects cause irreparable damage to any of the top three reservoir systems in New Jersey.
- Identify possible ways in which the historic and cultural resources of the region could be protected from the development of pipeline infrastructure.
- A sense of the cumulative impact of the cumulative impacts, that is, how the tri-state region is being affected by hydraulic fracturing and the magnification of the Highland impacts in light of the total number of pipelines and projects occurring through the Upper Delaware corridor.
The project will proceed in accordance with a project schedule to be included in the course syllabus with completion by the end of the spring 2013 term and will include a kickoff meeting in January and a presentation of the draft and/or final document to the Coalition and the Conservancy in April or May. All public documents will be made available to the firm for their use in preparing the report. The final document will be the property of the New Jersey Highlands Coalition and the Ramapough Conservancy.