Public Hearing March 26 on Draft Permit for cavern storage of liquid petroleum gases
NJDEP issued a draft permit to Delaware River Partners for two new massive underground storage caverns at their Repauno (Gibbstown Logistics Center) site on the Delaware River.
Come out to the in-person Public Hearing on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at St. Michael’s Mutual Club Event Hall, 406 Memorial Ave., Gibbstown, NJ 08027. The public hearing starts at 6:00 PM and ends when the last person speaks or by 9:00 PM. You must register ahead by sending an email here to Rhiannon.Kook@dep.nj.gov with “Notice of draft permit to construct two new underground storage cavern systems” as the subject line of the email.Anyone who is unable to email DEP to register or get a copy of the permit, call DEP at (609) 633-0610.
If approved, this cavern complex will store 26.8 MILLION gallons of liquid gases in two new underground caverns. This is more than four times the volume of underground storage their one cavern supplies now, bringing the total of underground gas storage to over 32 million gallons. This would be the largest underground cavern liquid gas storage complex in New Jersey. This doesn’t even count the aboveground storage at Gibbstown. It’s located right up against local schools and parks, and where people live, work, and conduct business. And it is less than 3 miles from the environmental justice community of Paulsboro. This proposal has large regional implications, will release air pollution, and puts hundreds of thousands of people and the Delaware River environment in jeopardy should there be an uncontrolled release!
Liquid petroleum gases (LPGs) include butane, propane and ethane, among other gases, but do NOT include Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which is prohibited under NJ regulations. LPGs are flammable, potentially explosive, and routinely release pollution through venting and flaring.
For now, let’s plan to get to the Hearing to tell DEP “NO explosives beneath our feet! This gargantuan proposal is TOO DANGEROUS and polluting for our communities!”
Read a copy of the proposed draft permit: https://dep.nj.gov/brp/caverns/usc-public-notices.
The application materials are available for inspection at New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Release Prevention, 401 East State St., 4th Floor, Trenton, NJ 08625-0420.
Some talking points suggested for the Hearing:
- Liquefied petroleum gasses are highly flammable, can cause explosion and/or fire, and the massive volume that will be stored here would be catastrophic if uncontrollably released. People live, work, and recreate, go to school and conduct business all within just a mile from these caverns. This is far too dangerous to consider!
- These enormous caverns will vent and/or flare gases routinely. Air pollutants could include: VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), NOx (Oxides of Nitrogen), CO (Carbon Monoxide), SO2 (Sulfur Dioxide), TSP (Total Suspended Particulates), PM10 (Particulate Matter ≤ 10 microns), Lead, Hazardous Air Pollutants and more. We cannot tolerate any more air pollution here!
- Environmental justice communities, already overloaded with dangers and pollution, are located within a few short miles of these caverns. It is unjust to expose people to more environmental burdens!
- Liquid petroleum gases can leak into the groundwater and pollute aquifers that we rely on for water supplies. The gases can also contaminate the adjacent Delaware River, waterways and soils. The new caverns pose a risk of further contaminating an already historically compromised aquifer. Preventing such pollution is the most effective way to protect water quality and the environment.
- Cavern construction, storage and the associated operations pose serious environmental impacts for the Delaware River, adjacent streams and waterways, and fish, aquatic life and wildlife, including the federally endangered Atlantic sturgeon and protected bald eagle and osprey, all of which have documented habitat here.
- This Repauno site is still undergoing clean up by Chemours due to over a hundred years of Dupont manufacturing munitions here. This site should not be further disturbed when the groundwater has not been fully cleaned up and the site is still under remediation requirements. Why allow interference with the cleanup of a grossly polluted site?
- We have the responsibility as a state to consider the climate impact – upstream and downstream, cradle to grave – of all projects approved here. Petroleum gases are fossil fuels that release greenhouse gases throughout the entire life cycle including while stored, contained in infrastructure or being transloaded. There is no requirement for this draft permit to consider its climate impacts. Permitting this project does not align with NJ’s “Priority Climate Action Plan” nor Governor Murphy’s Executive Order 274 which aims to reduce GHG emissions by 50% by 2030. DEP can’t act at cross-purposes with state policy!
- The Front-End Engineering Design Report addresses the significance of correct pressurization of the caverns and addresses the fact that it is impossible to remediate cavern stability once in use. Changes in climate will change the underlying assumptions for the cavern’s safety precautions. i.e., what is safe now may not be safe in the future. How will DRP and DEP ensure safety with these looming uncertainties?
- Delaware River Partners shows on their project map two more caverns they plan to build on the site. DEP must consider all of these caverns at once in order to accurately and comprehensively assess the impacts. Don’t allow segmentation of an even larger development project – that trick has long been used to minimize the evaluation of impacts!
- We are not really certain precisely what gases will be stored in these caverns, even though it will not be Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which is correctly prohibited. We need to know ahead of time what will actually be in these caverns and what the properties of these gases are and the potential impacts on public health and the environment.
- The Environmental and Health Impact Statement (EHIS), required by New Jersey’s new cavern rules (this is the first draft permit under these new rules) is not included in this draft permit, it will be required apparently at a later date. The EHIS was the one requirement in these new rules that was supposed to protect community health and now they are treating it like an afterthought! NO! We need to see the health assessment NOW before any draft cavern permit is out for comment or considered for approval.
- Although DEP says this permit is only for construction and that DRP will need to comply with additional requirements for operation of the caverns, the construction itself still poses environmental and safety risks including the potential for subsidence or other seismic disturbance.
- There was only 20 days’ notice given for this Hearing. There should be at least 30 days and then a lengthy comment period afterwards. The Hearing is only in-person in Gibbstown; this limits the number of people who can attend and makes the attendance much more local than regional, which is unfair. There is no excuse not to hold a hybrid hearing so more people can attend, taking advantage of virtual and in-person attendance opportunities. The lack of a robust public input process on this draft cavern permit is a fatal flaw in DEP’s approval process. The public must be given adequate public participation opportunities!
Thank you for attending the March 26 Hearing on this extremely dangerous proposal to allow this gargantuan liquid petroleum complex to be built in our communities on the Delaware River!
