Pipeline company pitches to Wantage

Underground project could begin in a few years, By Gretchen van Nuys Wantage — A natural gas pipeline company is eyeing property in Wantage for a future project to install a 36-inch-wide transmission line from Libertyville Road to the New York state border. According to Wantage Mayor Clara Nuss, the Iroquois Gas Transmission System wants to run a pipeline through Wantage as part of a larger, 66-mile-long project — NYMarc — that would bring natural gas from New York and Pennsylvania to the Hudson River Valley, Long Island, New York City and New England. “This was just a preliminary, courtesy meeting,” Nuss said at the township’s April 15 Committee meeting, when she described a recent talk she had with the company. “Several years from now this might happen, but there’s no way of knowing if it will.” Township role It turns out that jurisdiction for such a project falls not to the township, but to the state’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU). The company would try to negotiate a route that makes landowners happy, but if there are problems, the BPU gets the final decision, said Wantage Township Administrator Jim Doherty. “Mayor Nuss has already informed me that the Wantage governing body would, of course, support the desires of the residents in such a situation, but the mayor and committee have no standing with respect to final determinations that would be made,” Doherty added. Who gets the gas The natural gas running through the pipeline would not be for Wantage residents, Nuss said. No structures would be demolished to make way for the pipeline; any land involved would be farmland, which could be replanted once the pipe is laid. Property owners who choose to take part would be compensated for providing Iroquois easements on their properties. The proposed line would at first provide heating equal to the needs of almost two million homes, and ultimately provide more than three times that much. Ruth Parkins, Iroquois’ manager of public affairs, said in a telephone interview that the NYMarc project is still in a preliminary stage. “It’s a very long process,” she said. The company provides pipeline only, the gas comes from other firms. At the moment, Iroquois is trying to drum up interest in the project among firms that provide natural gas. If they can sign up those companies by mid-summer, Parkins said, they will have a better sense of the scope of the project. In that case, a next step would be to hold an information session for Wantage residents in early fall. Under that scenario, the proposed pipeline would be up and running in the fall of 2014. First, a survey Iroquois will need to get permission from landowners along the proposed pipeline route for access to their properties so surveys can be done. The firm has not yet targeted specific properties. “We have not gotten to that stage yet,” Parkins said.