The Pilgrim Pipeline was a planned 178-mile pipeline that would deliver up to 200,000 barrels of crude oil and other fuel products per day from Albany, New York to coastal Linden, New Jersey on the Arthur Kill. [1]
By 2021, the Pilgrim Pipelines Holdings, LLC website had been abandoned, as well as its social media presence.
Pilgrim Transportation of New York, Inc. first proposed the Pilgrim Pipeline and began lobbying in 2013. [2]
Pilgrim Pipelines Holdings, LLC, a company founded in 2014 by Koch Industries alumni, [3] planned to run two side-by-side pipelines [4] which would carry products like gasoline, kerosene, aviation fuel and home heating oil northbound—and highly flammable Bakken formation crude oil southbound—between Albany, New York and the Bayway Refinery on the Arthur Kill tidal estuary in Linden, New Jersey. [5]
Pilgrim Pipelines Holdings, LLC is owned by Ares Management. The entity financing the Pilgrim Pipeline was Ares EIF Investors Funds. [6]
The North Dakota oil in question is drilled via fracking, in which large amounts of water, sand, and chemicals are pumped deep underground under very high pressure to fracture apart shale deposits to release oil and gas. [7]
The project was initially supported by lobbyists connected with Republican NJ Governor Chris Christie. In 2018 developers hired lobbyists connected with Democratic NJ Governor Phil Murphy. [8]
By 2021, the Pilgrim Pipelines Holdings, LLC website had been abandoned, as well as its social media presence.
Area residents had expressed numerous complaints about the proposed pipeline.
Safety and drinking water concerns. Some assert that the pipeline poses risk to the residential communities through which it will pass, including the risk of highly flammable volatiles causing explosions and possible unsafe levels of cancer-causing chemicals [5] and drinking water contamination. [9]
In April 2017, "Talk of the Town" TV35 host Ashley Legg interviewed the campaign director of Clean Water Action about the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline, an oil and fuel pipeline set to run next to Hillside Avenue School if approved. [10]
According to an activist group, the Pilgrim proposal would intersect with various aquifers and drinking-water sources and risk contamination, including the following: "The Highlands region in NJ...provides drinking water to more than 4.5 million people in NJ. Pilgrim’s proposal cuts across 3 major drinking water rivers, numerous smaller streams and two EPA designated sole source aquifers (the Ramapo Aquifer and the Buried Valley Aquifer) in New Jersey. In New York it crosses 232 regulated streams" [11]
Pollution and environmental destruction concerns.
Others fear possible destruction of wetlands, toxic air emissions and soil erosion due to construction. [12]
Risk of drop in property values. Local residents have expressed outrage over the expected drop in property values for homes near the pipeline. [13] [14]
Quality of life concerns. Some homeowners along the proposed Pipeline have said they felt harassed, intimidated or deceived by past efforts by the owners of the proposed line to access their property for surveys and studies. [15] [16]
Others have claimed that a great deal of noise and disruption is to be experienced during construction. [17]
Some argue that the region would better avoid price spikes and fuel shortages if a direct pipeline allowed it access to fossil fuels, rather than exclusive reliance on rail and river barge. Others note that the Pipeline would create an explosion of local construction and maintenance jobs. [5]
Fifteen North Jersey municipalities created the Municipal Pipeline Group (MPG) in response to the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline. [18]
Other opposed groups include Citizen Action of the Hudson Valley, the NY-NJ Coalition Against the Pilgrim Pipeline (CAPP), [19] and the New Paltz Climate Action Coalition. [20]
The proposed route closely tracked the New York State Thruway, running parallel to, and west of, the Hudson River. [21]
As of 2017, the corporation planned to run the fossil fuel pipeline through 28 New York municipalities in six counties:
The company expects its pipeline to cross 29 municipalities throughout five New Jersey counties:
In protest of the Pilgrim Pipeline on their lands and in solidarity with Standing Rock and other clean water movements, members of the Ramapough Mountain Indians founded the Split Rock Sweetwater protest encampment [22] on their lands in Mahwah, New Jersey in 2016 near the New York border. [23] [5] [24]
In March 2017, starting at Waterfront Park in Carteret, New Jersey on the Chemical Coast of the Arthur Kill near the proposed terminus of the pipeline, activists marched on a 90-mile Water Walk for Life for water/pipeline awareness, in particular the Pilgrim Pipeline & SPECTRA-AIM in the region. [25] [26] Split Rock Sweetwater Prayer Camp welcomed the peace walkers on their journey [27] Longtime peace activist Jun-San Yesuda, a Buddhist nun of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji order and colleagues at the Grafton Peace Pagoda helped organize the walk. [28] [29]
A pipeline is a system of pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than 2,175,000 miles (3,500,000 km) of pipeline in 120 countries of the world. The United States had 65%, Russia had 8%, and Canada had 3%, thus 76% of all pipeline were in these three countries.
Mahwah is the northernmost and largest municipality by geographic area in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 25,487, a decrease of 403 (−1.6%) from the 2010 census count of 25,890, which in turn reflected an increase of 1,828 (+7.6%) from the 24,062 counted in the 2000 census. The name "Mahwah" is derived from the Lenape language word "mawewi" which means "Meeting Place" or "Place Where Paths Meet".
The Ogallala Aquifer is a shallow water table aquifer surrounded by sand, silt, clay, and gravel located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. As one of the world's largest aquifers, it underlies an area of approximately 174,000 sq mi (450,000 km2) in portions of eight states. It was named in 1898 by geologist N. H. Darton from its type locality near the town of Ogallala, Nebraska. The aquifer is part of the High Plains Aquifer System, and resides in the Ogallala Formation, which is the principal geologic unit underlying 80% of the High Plains.
Wyckoff is a township in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 16,585, a decrease of 111 (−0.7%) from the 2010 census count of 16,696, which in turn reflected an increase of 188 (+1.1%) from the 16,508 counted in the 2000 census.
The Ramapough Mountain Indians, known also as the Ramapough Lenape Nation or Ramapough Lunaape Munsee Delaware Nation or Ramapo Mountain people, are a group of approximately 5,000 people living in and around the Ramapo Mountains of Bergen and Passaic counties in northern New Jersey and Rockland County in southern New York, about 25 miles (40 km) from New York City. They were recognized in 1980 by the state of New Jersey as the Ramapough Lenape Nation but are not recognized federally. Their tribal office is located on Stag Hill Road on Houvenkopf Mountain near Mahwah, New Jersey. Since January 2007, the chief of the Ramapough Lenape Nation has been Dwaine Perry.
The Arthur Kill is a tidal strait in the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary between Staten Island, New York and Union and Middlesex counties, New Jersey. It is a major navigational channel of the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Passaic River is a river, approximately 80 miles (130 km) long, in Northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburban northern New Jersey, called the Great Swamp, draining much of the northern portion of the state through its tributaries.
The Ramapo River is a tributary of the Pompton River, approximately 30 mi (48 km) long, in southern New York and northern New Jersey in the United States.
The Chemical Coast is a section of Union and Middlesex counties in New Jersey located along the shores of the Arthur Kill, across from Staten Island, New York. The name is taken from the Conrail Chemical Coast Line, an important component in the ExpressRail system serving marine terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Bayway Refinery is a refining facility in the Port of New York and New Jersey, owned by Phillips 66. Located in Linden and Elizabeth, New Jersey, and bisected by Morses Creek, it is the northernmost refinery on the East Coast of the United States. The oil refinery converts crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, propane and heating oil. As of 2007, the facility processed approximately 238,000 bbl/d (37,800 m3/d) of crude oil, producing 145,000 bbl/d (23,100 m3/d) of gasoline and 110,000 bbl/d (17,000 m3/d) of distillates. Its products are delivered to East Coast customers via pipeline transport, barges, railcars and tank trucks.
Ramapo Mountain State Forest is a 4,200-acre (17 km2) state forest in Bergen and Passaic Counties in New Jersey. The park is operated and maintained by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry.
Martha Bowes MacCallum is an American journalist and news host for Fox News. She is the host of The Story with Martha MacCallum, broadcast from Manhattan. MacCallum joined the network in 2004. Her interviews with President Barack Obama, General David Petraeus, Arizona Senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, First Lady Laura Bush, and others have been featured on her programs.
Lisa Perez Jackson is an American chemical engineer who served as the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2009 to 2013. She was the first African American to hold that position.
Mahwah station is a NJ Transit train station located in Mahwah, New Jersey served by the Main Line, Bergen County Line, and Port Jervis Line.
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Ramapo College of New Jersey (RCNJ) is a public liberal arts college in Mahwah, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. As of the fall 2021 semester, there were a total of 5,732 students enrolled at the college, including 576 graduate students and 11 doctorate students.
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