Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware will be impacted by this project

Update from the FracTracker Alliance, January 4, 2021

After the Delaware Riverkeeper Network again appealed the controversial construction of a second dock for liquified natural gas (LNG) export in Gibbstown, New Jersey, its construction was re-approved in a Delaware River Basin Commission meeting on December 9th. The project’s opposers continue to raise concerns over the highly risky transportation of LNG and the impacts from LNG production at the New Fortress Energy processing plant in Wyalusing Township, Bradford County, PA.

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network has compiled data in cooperation with Fractracker Alliance to produce maps indicating two probable highway routes and two probable railway routes. Along each of these routes, a two-mile-wide hazard zone and population information are displayed. View the maps here.

After this disheartening development, Empower NJ led a coalition of 100 groups, including FracTracker and Delaware Riverkeeper Network, to stop the the LNG port construction. In a December 23rd letter to Governor Murphy, the coalition expressed their concern and disappointment at the DRBC’s approval of the LNG terminal. “This is just round one, we will fight and keep on fighting no matter what,” said New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel.

Delaware Riverkeeper Network plans to challenge the DRBC’s decision in federal court.

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See also: ‘Bomb Trains,’ a New Book on the Deadly, Ongoing Threat of Oil by Rail | DeSmog, Justin Mikulka, July 9, 2019

See also: Forecast for 2020: More Oil Trains, Fires, Spills, and the Rise of LNG by Rail, DeSmog, Justin Mikulka, January 7, 2020

LNG Tanker Ships are Gross Contributors to Global Climate Change

From an Article by Jon Hurdle, New Jersey Spotlight, July 17, 2019

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers divulged new details yesterday about plans for New Jersey’s first export terminal for liquefied natural gas, showing it would be supplied by as many as 15 trucks an hour — around the clock — to fill an ocean-going tanker every two weeks.

The previously unpublished information about the proposed terminal at Gibbstown in Gloucester County, the Army Corps said Tuesday, came from new details it had received about the plan by the developer, Delaware River Partners, since the agency published an earlier notice on the project in April.

The new document said LNG — a super-cooled form of natural gas that can explode if its vapor is mixed with air in an enclosed space — would not be processed or stored on site but would be pumped directly from trucks into ships.

To limit the impact of the heavy truck traffic on residential areas, Gloucester County is proposing a new access road to a port that would be expanded to accommodate the terminal, the document said. The new road would be about 110 feet from the nearest residential area; the terminal’s loading area would be built at least a mile away from those homes.

The developer has also proposed carrying the LNG to the terminal by rail but that idea hasn’t yet been approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Army Corps report said. Until that happens, the Corps said it’s not possible to predict the volume of LNG that would arrive by rail or the number of trains.

Opening markets for fracked Marcellus Shale gas

The Corps, which must approve some aspects of the planned Gibbstown Logistics Center, said there was nothing inaccurate about its first notice, but that it wanted to “expand our discussion of the public interest factors relevant to the Corps of Engineers review” of the project.

But disclosure of the new detail may fuel critics who say that DRP and some government agencies have not been fully transparent about a project that would bring explosive materials to a residential area, and which would stimulate the production of fracked natural gas, boosting climate-changing carbon emissions.

The gas, harvested from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale would be liquefied at a proposed plant in Bradford County, Pa., built by New Fortress Energy, a LNG company.

The terminal would expand the market for gas from the Marcellus geological formation — one of the biggest reserves in the world — after about a decade in which some of it has been “shut-in” because of a shortage of pipelines or other infrastructure for shipping it to customers.

If built, the Gibbstown facility would be the first LNG export terminal in New Jersey, and would join at least nine others around the country built over the last decade in response to the boom in production of natural gas obtained by fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing.

Critics have accused DRP and some government agencies of covering up the details of their plans, which would result in 360 trucks a day, each carrying 12,000 gallons of LNG, leaving the planned liquefaction plant in northeastern Pennsylvania and arriving in Gibbstown 24 hours a day. The terminal would have the capacity to export 1.67 million barrels of LNG per month.

“New Fortress Energy keeps playing games, and only giving out little bits of information at a time,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Every day we look at this, the project gets bigger and more dangerous.”

‘Supplemental public notice’ seems appropriate

Tittel argued that the Corps acted properly in issuing the new notice because it needed to make the public aware of the new information from the applicant.

Steve Rochette, a spokesman for the Corps’ Philadelphia office, said the new notice arose from conversations with the applicant since the first notice was issued.

“As a result of those conversations, this office felt the public would benefit from a supplemental public notice explaining the project in more detail. This in turn will allow the public to better understand the project and address any concerns that may arise,” he wrote in an email.

In evaluating the application for permits, the Corps said it will consider a range of factors including whether the project would help to meet national and local energy needs; whether dredging and dock construction would affect water quality, and whether those activities would erode shorelines.

DRP’s plans to dredge the Delaware River and construct an extra dock got a green light last month from the Delaware River Basin Commission in the face of criticism from environmentalists that it had not allowed the public the opportunity to comment. The DRBC said this week it is considering a request by the environmental group Delaware Riverkeeper Network to take another look at its approval, and hold a public hearing.

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NOTICE TO RESIDENTS, CONSERVATIONISTS & VACATIONERS

Beware to Delaware Bay, Cape Henlopen State Park, as well as the beaches including Lewes, Cape Shores, Rehoboth, etc. Sediment can become a problem. Fish kills can occur. The increased shipping can interfere with existing activities as the Cape May to Lewes Ferry. DGN

The Delaware River Basin is in NY, NJ, PA, MD, and DE

From an Article by Rob Friedman, Natural Resources Defense Council, March 30, 2018

Today marks the conclusion of a four-month long comment period on proposed fracking regulations in the Delaware River Basin. The draft regs were put forward by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), the body responsible for regulating activities affecting water quality in the Delaware River Basin. Securing a fracking ban would be a huge victory in the fight for clean water and against dirty fossil fuels.

The Delaware River Basin extends from the Catskills in New York to parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and is a vital water source for over 17 million people, about five percent of the nation’s population. Due to the watershed’s outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational contributions to the nation, Congress has designated several segments of the Delaware River and its tributaries for protection under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

The Commission took a big step in proposing a fracking ban for the River Basin, but the proposed ban does not go far enough, as it leaves open the potential for activities that could undermine the ban. These include permitting fracking wastewater storage, treatment and disposal in the basin, and allowing for the export of freshwater from the basin for use in fracking elsewhere. Over the course of the comment period, hundreds of citizens from across the watershed came out to six listening sessions to speak in support of a full ban.

NRDC’s comment letter on the proposed ban makes three main points:

1. The DRBC rightly proposes a ban on fracking in order to protect the region’s environment and economic livelihood: Fracking industrializes communities, contaminates drinking water and destroys fragile ecosystems.
2. The DRBC should ban the treatment and disposal of fracking wastewater in the watershed: Fracking generates massive amounts of polluted wastewater that threaten the health of our drinking water supplies, rivers, streams, and groundwater. These threats to water quality are present well beyond the footprint of the fracking well, even into areas where fracking itself is banned. Even industrially-treated fracking wastewater can harm water quality.
3. The DRBC should ban water withdrawals for fracking where it is permitted: Fracking is a highly water-intensive process, requiring millions of gallons of water to frack each well. Removing water for fracking would harm the watershed by threatening regional drinking water security and creating drought conditions that harm aquatic species, among other impacts.

For these reasons and more, NRDC stands with our allies across the region in supporting a full and complete fracking ban in the Delaware River Basin. You can read our full comments here, which includes a detailed report on the public health and environmental impacts of fracking wastewater.

Despite the critical role it plays in the lives of millions of Americans, this unique area has been at risk to fracking for over ten years. While home to bass, spawning shad, trout, and one of the healthiest American eel populations in the country, the Delaware River Basin also sits on top of the Marcellus Shale, a prominent source of natural gas. For over seven years, NRDC and our allies have urged the DRBC to stop fracking in this important region. And since 2011, there has been a de facto moratorium on fracking and its associated activities.

NRDC commends the DRBC for proposing a ban on fracking in the watershed. While an important step, a ban on drilling alone is insufficient to protect the Delaware River Basin. The time has come to make the moratorium a full ban.