Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy Aganist Natural Gas Pipeline
JERSEY CITY, NJ (WCBS 880) - A natural gas pipeline bound for Manhattan is planned to go under parts of Hudson County and both supporters and opponents got to voice their opinions at a meeting in Jersey City on Wednesday night.
WCBS 880's Levon Putney On The Story
Podcast
Supporters assure that added safety measures are in place and the natural gas pipeline to Manhattan will go deeper underground, but Jersey City mayor Jerramiah Healy says accidents happen.
"If it happened in a densely populated area such as Jersey City, it'll be nothing short of a full-blown catastrophe," he said. "Such as down in Edison 15 years ago where the flames were 400 or 500 feet high."
He also believes a pipeline under a section of his city would hurt redevelopment.
"Running a volatile substance such as natural gas at that kind of pressure, no investor, no developer, no one's going to purchase there," he said. "Besides the safety issue, which is really mission number one for any government - safety of your citizens - it's also going to be a tremendous impediment to our city's future economic opportunities."
Spectra Energy hopes to complete expansion of its existing Texas Eastern Transmission and Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline systems with a completion date of November 2013.
Do you support the pipeline? Sound off in the comments section below!
