Does it make sense to have a billion cubic feet of natural gas flowing a few hundred feet away from a school?

Guess what – the South Hunterdon School district doesn’t think it’s such a hot idea either:

South Hunterdon School District – FERC Generated PDF

South Hunterdon School District – FERC Generated PDF Alternate Site

Attached is a resolution that the South Hunterdon Regional School District Board of Education passed at its meeting on December 22, 2014; Please take notice, the Board of Education opposes the proposed route of the Penn East Pipeline, or any alternate route that would place any of the facilities of the South Hunterdon Regional School District (listed below) or its busing routes, within the pipeline’s Potential Impact Radius”

There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that the pipeline was originally slated to pass within 630 feet of the high school, but with the alternate route published in January 2015 that increased to over 9,000 feet.

The bad news is that it’s only 1,500 feet from West Amwell Elementary school.  Here’s a google earth view of the pipeline corridor near the school:

1,500 feet from the school!

As a bonus the ESC school is right across the street from West Amwell Elementary.

So there’s the good and bad.  And now here’s the ugly:

138 feet from Hewitt Park!

As the snapshot shows the pipeline survey corridor is less than 150 feet from the entrance of Hewitt Park!  This is a park that’s used in the spring, summer, and fall for baseball and soccer games by elementary schools in the area.