January 30, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Mahwah Property owners oppose gas pipeline route by Frank J. McMahon The owners of the Sun Valley Farm on Ramapo Valley Road (Route 202) in Mahwah oppose the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company plan to use Bear Swamp Road as a permanent and perpetual route for construction access to the company’s $400 million gas line expansion program in northwestern New Jersey. That 7.6-mile pipeline expansion is part of a larger program by TGP, known as the “Northeast Upgrade,” which is intended to increase the amount of natural gas extracted in Pennsylvania through a hydraulic fracturing process. That process, known as “fracking,” uses water and chemicals to break up the bedrock in the ground in order to release the gas. The expanded pipeline is planned to run parallel to a 60-year-old pipeline that will extend from Bergen County through Sussex County and through four counties in Pennsylvania. The project was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in May 2012. Several environmental groups have opposed the plan on the basis that a more thorough review is required of the potential impact of the gas line expansion on the environment. Federal regulators recently denied their request to postpone the project. Richard and Carole Greene, the owners of 233-acre Sun Valley Farm, which their families have owned for 70 years, sold their development rights to the property to Bergen County in 2002 in exchange for the placement of an easement on the property permanently restricting it to agricultural use only. That preservation easement prohibits the subdivision or development of their property. They now feel threatened by the gas line expansion plan, claiming the route to be used by TGP for transporting workers and materials involves the use of an old mountain road, Bear Swamp Road, over the temporary Bailey Bridge, which is on top of the “historic” 1888 Cleveland Bridge over the Ramapo River. According to the Greenes, the route then travels on a Mahwah Township right of way over Sun Valley Farm property, through a gate on private land where it winds its way up the mountain in an area called Price Valley, named after a former state governor who was a prior owner of the land, and alongside the state designated trout stream called Bear Swamp Brook. “The old one-lane wagon road is mainly used to access the Boy Scout Camp Yaw Paw where the rough paving ends,” the Greenes explained in a statement about the project. “The old trail continues on one of the spurs of Cannonball Road, a Revolutionary War military road which is mainly unpaved, then crossing the existing pipeline and continuing northward toward New York State.” The Greenes oppose the unrestricted use of this route by TGP for the transport of hazardous materials through their property, the property of their neighbor to the south who is building a new home there, and the Boy Scout camp property, where they claim it poses a physical threat of fire and explosion and a constant daily disturbance to the quiet, bucolic atmosphere that has existed at the camp since 1920. According to the Greenes, the easement TGP wants to condemn crosses state and county parkland also in an area where 468 acres of the Sun Valley Farm tract was sold to the county in 1978 to be designated as Green Acres land in order to keep it pristine and natural forever. “All three landowners oppose the use of the private road as a means of bringing diesel fuel deliveries in tankers on a daily basis to feed the many pieces of large equipment to be used in the pipeline project in the mountains for two years,” the Greenes said. “Also, large quantities of acetylene welding gas will be brought up the narrow road which virtually hangs on the edge of the slopes above the stream below. “Landowners fear the roadway edges might give out as they have in the past, but with the larger, heavy tankers and rack trucks carrying flammable and explosive materials, the safety of the mountain’s forests and natural streams would be endangered.” They also point out that there is no escape or evacuation route from the Boy Scout camp if Price Valley were to be closed due to an accident. The Greenes emphasized that they and their neighbors are not opposed to negotiating an easement agreement with TGP, but they have not yet come to an agreement on the use restrictions to protect the land and the compensation for damages. They feel TGP has not negotiated for the condemnation of part of their land in good faith and have not provided full and accurate information as to their intended use of Bear (continued on page 23)