Turns and Twists This Week Fighting the TGP NEUP Pipeline -- Countdown #8

This week the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, joined by NJ Highlands Coalition and NJ Sierra, filed the additional briefs necessary to pursue our request for an injunction from the Federal Court to stop the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company’s (TGP) Northeast Upgrade Project (the “NEUP”) while we continue our legal battles.  We were pleased this week to be joined by George C. Feighner in our legal challenge and request for injunction.  Mr. Feighner and his wife will be directly damaged if the NEUP is allowed to go through. 

According to his affidavit filed with the court, Mr. Feighner, now 87, and his wife “live in an historic house in the woods, much of which TGP proposes to clear-cut. Our lot is six acres. … [T]he edge of that forest is 60 feet from my back door. This is where TGP proposes to begin clear-cutting -- practically on my back doorstep. We chose this home for its seclusion and for the beauty of the forest surrounding it.” 

Clearly Mr. Feighner’s peace and that beauty he so cherishes is going to be destroyed if TGP is allowed to cut its way through for the NEUP. As will the beauty and safety of the Upper Delaware region TGP proposes to slash through.

This week there is no tree felling proposed, but we need that injunction to keep it that way.

Joe Zenes with Delaware Riverkeeper Network testifying
before DRBC about the NEUP

In a new turn of events, in response to documents filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and supported by 52 other organizations, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) admitted they got it wrong on two pipelines – that they should have exercised their jurisdiction and review over the Columbia 1278 pipeline project and the TGP 300 Line.  The error, they say in a letter written to me by the Executive Director Carol Collier, was their failure to recognize that these two projects cut through the Delaware State Forest, a recreation area included in the DRBC’s Comprehensive Plan. 

Shockingly, despite that the NEUP also cuts through this same forest, and that the DRBC failure to review the project also occurred at a time when they didn’t realize the Delaware State Forest mandated their review, the DRBC is not going to make it right – as of right now they are continuing to deny reviewing the damage of the slash through the forest and beyond. 

We need to stand strong against this denial of justice for the forest, the communities and the River.  We are and we will need your help.