Christie DEP Deploys State Police To Eject Mayor and Critics From Public Hearing on Pipeline Permit

I am really glad that I was unable to attend last night’s pipeline hearing in Bordentown – my dog could not tolerate me spending a night in jail!

I just read the NJ Spotlight story on that hearing and – casually mentioned several paragraphs into the story – learned that:

[Glenn] Ashton was one of at least two speakers who were ejected from the meeting by state troopers after exceeding a three-minute speaking limit set by DEP officials.

What?

State Troopers eject “at least two” people from a public hearing for exceeding an arbitrary 3 minute limit set by DEP bureaucrats?

Are you kidding me?

[Update: Holy moly! I just read the Burlington County Times’ story, and they ejected the Mayor!

• Bordentown Township mayor removed from DEP hearing on natural gas compressor

“I don’t need a microphone,” Popko said as New Jersey State Police troopers escorted her from the auditorium. “I find this outrageous and offensive. Three minutes to the mayor of this town is utterly wrong.” …

“You’re supposed to be for environmental protection, not business protection,” Popko said before being escorted out.

The permit applicant has had MONTHS of private behind closed door meetings with DEP staffers – the public was shut out and not made aware of all those meetings, phone calls, and correspondences.

The game is rigged, folks.

DEP just issued a “permit by rule” approval that essentially privatized the stream encroachment permit – there will be no public hearings or opportunity for public comment on that permit, including DEP’s critical applicability determination.

For the details on that, see:

• Christie DEP Finds That Pipelines Crossing Streams Have “No Impact” On Them

It’s game over folks, because DEP already made the essential finding on the water quality issue, i.e. that pipeline stream crossings using HDD will “not disturb the stream in any way”.

The Christie DEP is a totally corrupt agency.

Last night was not the first time that Christie DEP used State Police to intimidate and suppress critics, see:

• DEP Commissioner Martin Uses State Police To Eject Environmentalist From Polluter’s Advisory Group Meeting

In my 30+ year career, I can not recall prior cases where the local Mayor and members of the public were ejected by State Police for exceeding a 3 minute time limit on public testimony.

Where is the outrage over this?

End Note to Jon Hurdle: Thanks for finally mentioning the NY State Cuomo DEC denial of Water Quality Certificate.

Ask the PennEast people about that and the implications of DEP’s recent “permit by rule” applicability determination for the stream encroachment permit for HDD issued to SJG.

PS to readers: I am writing from a library with time limits and other constraints, so can’t go into detail on these issues. More to follow on that.