So the Lambertville Pipeline Committee has been busy since it was formed just a few weeks ago.  One of the big concerns with Lambertville is the potential impacts to their main water supply, which is the Swan Creek Reservoir next to Route 518 in West Amwell.  That Reservoir and water treatment plant is now owned by a company called Suez (used to be United Water, and a bunch of other companies before that).

So we naturally met with Suez representatives to get their take on things.  A full FERC comment on it is going out and is available at the link below:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wacapresearch/SuezLambertvilleComment.pdf

We went into the meeting knowing that Suez was mentioned as being a source of water for hydrostatic testing, and assumed they were in bed with PennEast in one way or another.

Boy, were we wrong.  Suez was duped just like the rest of us have been.

Some of the highpoint from the meeting:

• Suez had only been contacted once by PennEast, and never again since then
• PennEast lied to Suez.  PennEast said there would be no blasting anywhere near the site.  Yet their recent data dump shows the site as one of those where blasting would be probable.
• PennEast lied to Suez about drilling too.  They told Suez they would be drilling far below the site and so wouldn’t impact any of their infrastructure.  In fact they’re open trenching that site.
• Oh, and by the way, the pipe between the reservoir and water treatment plant is where they are open trenching, and it’s only a few feet below the surface.  Say goodbye to your water, Lambertville.
• PennEast lied about contacting Suez about a source of water for hydrostatic testing.  Suez reps vehemently denied having talked to PennEast about it at all.
• The DEIS naturally makes no mention of Suez or the reservoir or drinking water supplies, other than the lie above about PennEast using the reservoir as a water source for hydrostatic testing.
• The reservoir dam is a “High Hazard Dam”.  It’s failure would almost certainly lead to loss of life and/or extensive property damage in Lambertville and West Amwell.
• Did I mention that the plans as they exist today would destroy Lambertville’s main source of drinking water?

So we should all cheer up.  It isn’t just us that PennEast messes with.  They do the same thing to critical drinking water infrastructure companies, too.