Big Oil as Conservationists?

by Tasha Kates

In an archetypal flip, big oil is fighting a New Jersey municipality to save birds on a slice of waterfront property.

Oklahoma-based oil giant Citgo and the township of Pennsauken are in talks to determine the future of Petty Island, a small oasis on the Delaware River. Citgo, which currently owns the uninhabited 292-acre parcel located north of the Ben Franklin Bridge, wants to donate it to New Jersey for use as a public nature preserve. Pennsauken has other ideas: commercial businesses, new homes and an 18-hole golf course. Officials there say they will use eminent domain if Citgo refuses to hand over the land for development.

Pennsauken is working with North Carolina-based Cherokee Investment Partners to formulate a 600-acre redevelopment plan. They hope to turn industrialized waterfront areas into commercial business and residential spaces. Nature-heavy Petty Island is the last property to be acquired for the project.

Controversy stems from Citgo's 2003 discovery of nesting bald eagles on the island. The company, which stopped operations on the island that year, decided that the land was of high ecological value and decided to donate the land along with some money for decontamination and transformation into a public preserve.

On June 10, officials from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection found an 11-week-old eaglet with a tail injury limping near its nest. The maggot-covered chick died on its way to a raptor rescue facility.

Already, Citgo employees spotted a tent 30 feet from the nest, which was traced back to an ornithologist hired by Cherokee to survey the island's bird population, officials say. While the development company says it did not know the man had trespassed on the island to study the birds, the agency says the ornithologist may be to blame for the chick's death.

"There are always facts that people don't want to know," Pennsauken Mayor Rick Taylor says. "Baby eagles sometimes fall out of the nest."

Cherokee spokesman Rich Ochab says the company plans to develop over Citgo's existing operations without disturbing the remainder of the island. If Citgo's donation of the island as a nature preserve is not accepted by the state, the company will attempt to donate it to the federal government, says John McCrossin, Citgo's manager of environmental health.

However, he says Citgo may not be able to donate the island because of the threat of eminent domain. "We think that their deal is a payment to say no to a wildlife refuge and yes to development," McCrossin says. "And the state of New Jersey will not turn that down."

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