By SETH AUGENSTEIN
saugenstein@njherald.com
Six months after the Highlands Council said PSE&G's
Susquehanna-Roseland power line plans are inconsistent with the
Highlands master plan, the power company has submitted more
eco-friendly plans for the 45-mile route running through northwestern
New Jersey into Pennsylvania.
The new proposal includes moving the proposed switching station from
an environmentally sensitive tract in Jefferson to a smaller site west
of the Weldon Quarry in Hopatcong.
A compensation fund of $18.6 million also will be put aside to
account for unavoidable environmental impacts, according to the new
plan. The extra costs include new management plans, restoration plans
for streams and rivers, and another plan for historic and
archaeological preservation. There also will be 11 less towers along
the new proposed power line route, according to PSE&G spokeswoman
Karen Johnson.
"This comprehensive plan will minimize the impacts of our project on
the environment while enabling us to ensure safe, reliable electric
service for years to come," said Don McCloskey, PSE&G's director of
environmental strategy and policy.
The proposed power line, which would stretch from Susquehanna, Pa.,
to Roseland in Essex County, is part of an upgrade needed to ensure
reliable service, as well as meet future demands, said PJM
Interconnection, the regional organization that oversees electric power
production and transmission for 13 Northeastern and Midwestern states
and the District of Columbia.
PSE&G is responsible for building the section between Roseland
and the Delaware River while PPL is responsible for the Pennsylvania
portion. The project was made public last June and the chosen corridor
was unveiled a month later. The New Jersey stretch passes through from
Essex to Morris counties, and through the Sussex County towns of
Sparta, Hopatcong, Byram, Andover, Newton, Fredon and Stillwater,
before moving into Hardwick in Warren County, and on to Pennsylvania.
The new plan still will cost PSE&G an estimated $750 million.
The original scope was deemed inconsistent in December with the
Highlands master plan, a regional strategy to limit development and
protect the largest source of the state's drinking water.
Environmental groups, including the New Jersey Environmental
Federation, the New Jersey Highlands Coalition, and the state's Sierra
Club, are dismissive of the new plan.
"You can't mitigate a bullet wound with a Band-Aid," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club.
Grass-roots organizations, such as Fredon-based Stop the Lines, have
raised safety and quality of life concerns about the project, as well
as questioning the need of the new, and significantly taller, lines.
David Slaperud, a trustee of Stop the Lines, said the group was baffled
that money was a factor in the environmental concerns surrounding the
project.
"I'm just amazed that money can somehow allow this to go through the
Highlands," Slaperud said. "We had no idea that negotiations were going
on behind the scenes."
The existing latticework towers along the right-of-way were built in
1929 and are about 90 feet tall. The new towers, a combination of
monopole and latticework, will be twice that height. PSE&G's
proposal to add 500-kilovolt service to the existing 230-kilovolt lines
still is before the state Board of Public Utilities. It also must be
approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection since the
route travels through the Highlands, a multi-municipal region.
"They (BPU) alone will determine the need," said Eileen Swan, the
executive director of the Highlands Council. "This plan is conditioned
upon BPU's approval. Our job is to say, if this project is to occur,
how can we best protect the region."
Still, Swan said PSE&G worked with the council's previous draft
findings for the more environmentally-friendly plan, but the new
proposal still must pass a council vote.
"Council staff did work on it with PSE&G, but it has not received council approval," Swan said.
