The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Category Archives: PennEast

Where’s my head at?

Posted on by Posted in PennEast .

An update on my state of mind:

This week I snapped a photo as best I could of a Red Shouldered Hawk chilling on the kids playground. Yes it is endangered in NJ, yes I’ve submitted its existence to both NJDEP and FERC. Nailed it!

Now we wait.

This is just the tiniest microcosm of why this pipeline cannot come to fruition.

hawk

 

In a wonderfully awful mash-up, I went on a local radio show “Into the Garden” to not talk gardens, but all things gas pipelines. The two gentleman who accompanied me were incredibly informed and if you had listened, you would give this project zero chance. Freaking smart and dedicated people.

radio

A quick aside – my hairline is disappearing rapidly. My large dome cannot handle this.

Since the “announcement” that my property would be directly impacted by the Penn East pipeline, I had yet to obtain and plant a single plant. That protest is officially over. I feel optimistic (subject to change) and energized once again. Amazing what a few Sweet Flag can do for the psyche.

carex

 

The deer are apparently optimistic as well as they no longer fear the repercussions of destroying my shrubs. They must sense I am more at ease and it is OK to devour the hydrangeas now.

hydrangea deer

While I’m feeling better of late, the panic and anger hasn’t completely dissipated. A co-worker in typical corporate-speak mumbled “What else do we have in the pipeline for this project?” After a few deep breaths, I retorted with “Nothing” and calmly added “Don’t ever ask me that again.”

As far as I can tell, my intimidation worked.

Return of the hawk and the sneezeweed

Posted on by Posted in PennEast, Perennials .

About three years ago I asked you all to help me identify a certain bird that was making its home in my back woods. You can read it here.

hawk

Ever since then, we’ve enjoyed seeing many more of them flying around and even hanging out on the kids playground. Their high pitched shrills are endless and we love every minute of it.

Ironically, we’ve now discovered that the red tailed hawk is an endangered species in New Jersey and that this will be a factor in our fight against the proposed pipeline potentially coming our way. If the 50 foot wide easement becomes a reality, the red tailed hawk’s home will be gone.

The plot thickens.

As you may have observed, I’ve been a bit re-energized with the garden this past week and in keeping with that theme, here are a few photos to power us into the weekend.

There are a ton of “volunteer” Rudbeckia that have become borderline invasive in my garden and I’ve religiously removed them all summer. The only exception are the ones below that nicely filled in a gap and look quite handsome through the Karl Foerster grass.

m2

 

What a frickin color on Panicum ‘Ruby Ribbons’.

m8

 

I know nothing about tropical plants but this one was given to me by a plant loving uncle and I some how managed to keep it alive in a container. What a bloom on this one.

m14

 

The Sneezeweed have arrived and hopefully will stand their ground and not topple over as they are want to do.

m9

 

And they have appeared mysteriously throughout the garden this summer.

m6

 

I am completely sold on the dwarf Sneezeweed by the way. Phenomenal even after having been planted as recently as this spring.

m12

Have a great weekend.

 

 

Fight the good fight

Posted on by Posted in PennEast .

It is the afternoon of July 24th and I’m starting to wrap up my day at work, looking forward to attending a minor league baseball game that night. My son had just completed a week of sports broadcasting camp and was going to record himself broadcasting that evening’s game. The entire family would be there to support him. It’s the heart of summer, it’s baseball and we get to watch our 13 year old son do what he loves.

And then the call came from my wife.

If you follow this blog (and damn you if you don’t) you know what came next. Word got out that our property was now in the clear path of a natural gas pipeline. The pipeline itself was not a shock, we had been fighting it for months, but the new route was a punch to the gut. I’ll never forget zooming in on my home via Google Earth and seeing the image of a long red rectangle spanning my entire property. It felt like the yard had already been condemned.

We did our best to enjoy the festivities at the ballpark that night but something felt very wrong as we stood for the national anthem. As the song played, I felt betrayed. This f’n situation was so damn un-American. I was 50% pissed and 50% distraught. Baseball and hot dogs and apple pie, what a sham.

The next two weeks were a whirlwind. What is eminent domain? Do we need a lawyer? Who can we turn to for advice? How much do we let the kids know? We were frozen with indecision and shut off from the world.

I’ll always look back on July 24th as a major turning point in our lives. Yes the fear of our world being turned upside down was the dominant emotion, but there was also an odd feeling of guilt. Guilt not having worked harder on the fight to that point. Guilt not being more sympathetic to others who faced similar circumstances in the past. Guilt in floating through life a bit naive and blind to some underhanded shit going on. We’ll never be the same again and when all is said and done, I think that is a good thing.

Fast forward to the current week. The panic waned a bit and we became very task oriented. Refuse the request to survey our property and work with others to do the same. Keep an eye out for surveyors not following the rules. As of right now, only roughly 30% of affected landowners in NJ have granted access. That is a big deal. It makes it very difficult for Penn East to submit an application for a permit with so little info.

Get as educated as possible. Numerous comments have been submitted to FERC outlining environmental concerns from the crossing of numerous streams to the effect on endangered species to the crossing of a fault that was recently part of a local earthquake to the danger of increasing the already high level of arsenic in our well water. Heavy stuff. And these weren’t from the “radical environmentalists” (whatever the hell that means). We are talking experts who have studied these impacts for decades.

Check this article out – NJ saying “no” to the pipeline. We’re talking about harsh words from one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world.

Color me convinced.

Now let me take a break for a minute and admit that this is an odd forum to discuss an issue like this. Admittedly, it is completely personal and off topic, but I’m doing it for me. And I won’t apologize for it. I truly hope we can some day look back on this period of my blog and say, that was kind of odd for a gardening blog but now look at where we are. He is back to posting endless photos of his ornamental grasses like they are his children.

That is the dream. Until then, I’ll be all over the place with my writing.

“For the public good”. That is what ultimately justifies the use of eminent domain. I won’t get into all of the specifics on this now, but just know that it is a crock of shit. No one in the pipeline’s path or even in NJ or PA will benefit. There is no shortage of natural gas in this area and there is no concern with high gas prices. Consider the following two facts (taken directly from the blog “The Cost of the Pipeline”, a blog written by my new hero. This guy is incredible with his research and knowledge. A “regular” dude who took it upon himself to get educated and fight back):

PennEast will be carrying 365 cubic feet per year into the state – which is again a 55% over-capacity. On natural gas demand projections – PennEast is flat out wrong. Government studies show that natural gas use is expected to decline out to 2040.

The April 2015 numbers show New Jersey with the lowest natural gas prices in the entire country. So let’s repeat the question, but with the updated data: why does NJ need a 55% supply increase when we have the lowest residential natural gas prices in the entire United States.

I rest my case.

Back to our task oriented week.

My wife and I attended a local township’s monthly meeting and became even more educated. We came away with a to-do list. We made great personal connections. It was inspiring and all Erin Brockovichy.

That meeting inspired me to approach my own township’s Board of Health to get them to adopt a resolution formally opposing the pipeline. And you know what – mission frickin accomplished.

Comments to FERC are a nightly occurrence as we identify more and more hypocrisy from the bad guys.

So we are in an interesting state of mind right now. Inspired and invigorated from the fight and actual evidence that progress is being made, or should I say progress isn’t being made on the other side. We’ve moved away from personal worry for the time being and are united in wholly defeating this unnecessary project. The odds still seem stacked against us based on past history, but that doesn’t matter. We won’t stop.

Greed doesn’t always win. Why not us?

As an aside, and you can etch the following in stone. If this pipeline is defeated we will throw a giant bash locally with the entire party hosted on the path of the failed pipeline.

And I will walk the entire pipeline path from NJ to PA dressed like a minion.

minion

 

Pinky swear.

 

Pipeline update

Posted on by Posted in PennEast .

First off, a big thank you to all of you who have reached out via comment, email, phone, etc. We truly appreciate all of your concern and support.

The concept of a private company being able to tear up your property against your will in order to dump a hazardous monstrosity on it is a tough one to swallow. It is life altering and the uncertainty of the future makes it tough to navigate the day-to-day right now.

pipeline

I already see the kids looking out the window suspiciously at any vehicle that enters the street and I’m having a hard time enjoying my beloved garden now that the future is murky. No more long term planning or new garden beds to dream of.

But I digress …

To catch you all up on what is going on and where things stand, here is a summary:

  • The proposed natural gas pipeline from PennEast Pipeline Company would run from NE Pennsylvania, under the Delaware River, into NJ (Hunterdon County) and would terminate in Pennington, NJ (Mercer County).  A total of 110 miles.
  • The pipeline will carry natural gas on a continual basis through a 36 inch diameter pipe that would be buried at least 3 feet in the ground.
  • The easement that would house the pipeline would be 50-100 feet wide.
  • We will not be tapping into or benefiting in the future from the use of the natural gas as we will continue to use propane.
  • Word of the pipeline first emerged in October 2014. The first proposed route also emerged at that time. We were not directly in the line of the pipeline then but it was still less than a 1/2 mile from our home. As of this past Friday, the proposed route has changed, for reasons unknown, and we are now directly in its path.
  • FERC is scheduled to render their decision in 2016 with construction starting some time in 2017.
  • There has been an incredible fight by the community from the get-go and the fight has never been about the location of the pipeline but the fight to defeat its existence at all.
  • We’ve attended town halls and other meetings along the way and have become well educated on fracking, the ways of the pipeline companies, what to do if you are contacted by any of the companies even loosely affiliated with PennEast and of course, all of the concerns that come with the pipeline (well contamination, safety, destruction of farmland/preserved land, etc.). Color us concerned.
  • PennEast has been conducting/attempting to conduct property surveys for months now. Only 1/3rd of property owners have allowed the company to survey and that has created a bit of a roadblock for obtaining the necessary permits.
  • We’ve just received our official letter requesting a survey …  and I’ll leave it at that.

Obviously, a lot more to come with this and I’ll continue to document along the way. It somehow helps me deal with the gravity of the situation and just maybe it helps spread the word a bit.

If you want to know more about this pipeline and concerns with pipelines in general, I highly recommend checking out this blog:

The Cost of the Pipeline

And finally, I would love for you to sign the following petition which asks the federal government (FERC) to add additional public meetings where all of the people can be heard with their concerns in regards to the PennEast pipeline.

Come to me, DRBC

Thank you

 

 

 

 

I am pissed off

Posted on by Posted in PennEast .

The title is no joke.

Nothing witty to come or a play on words.

Yes, this is a gardening blog, but I need the outlet for something different today.

I had originally intended to piece together a nice long post about my recent visit to the High Line in New York City. I was casually reviewing the 300+ photos I had taken when my wife called. I immediately could sense the uneasiness and stress in her voice.

High Line post on hold.

Since October we have been fighting the planned natural gas pipeline that is intended to cut through our quiet little country town. It literally came out of nowhere and caught us all off guard. Up until that point, I was vaguely aware of the fact that pipelines of all sorts run underneath us in our daily lives. But living in the “country” with propane gas, a well and septic, you tend to be a little oblivious about these things.

But not anymore.

For now, I won’t get into the arguments against the need for this pipeline or fracking as a whole. I am generally “middle of the road” when it comes to these types of debates. I like to think I weigh both sides evenly in  a logical manner. If you want to call me wishy-washy, go right ahead. That is who I am and I won’t apologize for it.

But this is different.

The pipeline will be a topic I will cover in this blog quite often over the next few weeks/months/years. And with this one, there will be no middle ground. I am fucking pissed (pardon my French).

Because as of today, the PennEast pipeline is now set to completely envelop my property.

We haven’t actually been notified by anyone of this change.  My wife discovered it 2015 style, on Facebook. The map of the pipeline route was recently amended and only because we belong to a private group on Facebook were we made aware of the alterations. Why the route was changed, we still don’t know.

It’s one thing to fight against something when you are only indirectly affected. But damn it is a whole lot different when you are directly impacted. I’m already feeling guilt over not fighting longer and harder before today for all those in the path of this unnecessary 36 inch behemoth. It is not about “not in my yard” but “not at all”. For that I feel regret and will do my best to urge others to look at this the same way.

If you are interested in the specifics of this proposed pipeline, read this.

I am pissed because you are destroying pristene land that so many fought for over the years.

I am pissed because I remember the explosion in Edison, NJ like it was yesterday.

I am pissed because of your shady practices.

I am pissed because the township gets nothing out of this other than a nice scar that will live on for eternity.

I am pissed because if you wipe out my garden or even damage it a bit, you are wiping out a huge part of me.

I am pissed because I still play baseball/softball with my kids in the backyard. I’m not ready for that to end.

I am pissed because you will be messing with my water supply.

I am pissed because money always wins.

I am pissed because I have no idea what the future holds. Can they take my house/property if it goes that far? Even if not, will it ever be the same?

I am pissed because you have put my wife and kids into a panic. How do you explain this to a 9 year old? Her response to hearing about it, “Can we call the police?”

But I will tell you this. I will fight like hell until the very end. I want my kids to know that you never give up, that you never stop fighting for what you believe in.

Game fucking on.