Representative Malinowski Meets with Landowners Affected by Proposed PennEast Pipeline

(Somerville, NJ) This month, Representative Tom Malinowski visited landowners in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District who would be harmed by the proposed PennEast pipeline. The tour included six sites in Hunterdon County where Rep. Malinowski spoke with landowners and toured their properties. View photos from the visits here: https://ggle.io/3wbo.

“Hunterdon County landowners should not have to live in constant fear that the homes and farms they’ve shaped over generations will be irrevocably altered so that others may profit from a pipeline New Jersey doesn’t need.” said Rep. Malinowski. “Thank you to the property owners who shared their stories with me over the past several weeks. I will take these conversations back to Washington and continue the fight to stop this unnecessary pipeline from moving forward.”

“The environmental impacts of PennEast on our property are devastating: arsenic rich rock will be blasted or drilled releasing arsenic into our soil and water, all of our Asian Pear Trees, most if not all of our apple trees, a stand of Christmas Trees, two hayfields and a huge swath of our woodlot will be destroyed,” said TC and Joe Buchanan, owners of Achy Acres in Stockton.

“My sense of community and my appreciation for my neighbors has really grown since we started organizing against the pipeline together, and now I can’t imagine living anywhere else. My family’s heart is here,” said landowner Jacqueline Evans.

TC Buchanan shows Rep. Malinowski around Achy Acres, where she and her husband, Joe, grow hay, persimmons, apples, pears, and Christmas trees. The PennEast Pipeline would put their property at risk of no longer sustaining agricultural use.

Rep. Malinowski meets with the Evans family who shares how their local community has come together in organizing against PennEast.

Landowner, Jack Niciecki, shows Rep. Malinowski around his 300-year-old farm, which will be materially changed by the proposed pipeline due to bank erosion and tree removal.

Rep. Malinowski meets with the Pandy family, whose multigeneration farmstead is already impacted by two other pipelines under their property. The PennEast Pipeline would go through the middle of their 150-acre farm.

Rep. Malinowski views the Kager family property in Kingwood Township.

The tour came as the Department of Justice backed the PennEast Pipeline Company in an upcoming Supreme Court case regarding the company’s efforts to exercise eminent domain to seize public lands. Last month, Representatives Malinowski and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) expressed their disappointment with this decision, standing with New Jersey property owners. 

Representative Malinowski has been an outspoken advocate for property owners affected by the proposed PennEast pipeline. Earlier this month, Representatives Malinowski and Watson Coleman introduced the SAFER Pipelines Act which would improve the review process the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) must complete in order to approve natural gas pipeline projects. The bill increases oversight of the approval process and ensures that the environmental and safety concerns of local communities are properly heard and considered before new pipelines are approved. In the 116th Congress, the House passed the Representative’s Fairness for Landowners Facing Eminent Domain Act to protect landowners facing eminent domain for the construction of pipelines as part of the Clean Energy Jobs and Innovation Act.