"West Roxbury gas pipeline proposal draws fire" by Meghan E. Irons, Globe Staff January 18, 2015
Dynamite explodes inside a massive West Roxbury quarry many times each week, rattling plates in nearby homes and jarring nerves in this far-flung section of the city.
But now, neighbors say they have something new to fear.
A Houston energy company is planning to build a $1 billion natural gas pipeline through the neighborhood along with a gas pressure regulating station across from the quarry. Residents fear the underground transmission pipeline could one day rupture because of relentless blasting at the quarry, causing catastrophic harm to families, schools, and a nursing home nearby.
“People are scared,’’ West Roxbury resident Rickie Harvey said. “Residents do not have any assurances that this is safe.”
Spectra Energy Corp., the Fortune 500 company planning the West Roxbury pipeline, said it has a clean safety record. The pipeline would be designed, constructed, and maintained to meet federal guidelines and would not interfere with the safe operations of the quarry, the company said.
Spectra has not had a safety violation involving death or injury since 2006, but has amassed more than $350,000 in fines for failure to inspect transmission lines, according to recent data from the US Department of Transportation, which has a unit that regulates pipeline safety.
“Spectra Energy has been operating safely in the New England region for more than 60 years,’’ company spokeswoman Marylee Hanley said.
The West Roxbury gas line issue, simmering for two years, has gained steam recently and pits residents against one of North America’s largest pipeline companies, whose customers include NStar and National Grid. It has also generated broad — and uniformly negative — responses from the political class, with Boston’s mayor, a US representative, and officials from at least one other community rallying against the pipeline.
Related: Federal agency looks favorably on gas pipeline into Boston
The burst of opposition comes as Spectra nears the end of a lengthy application process aimed at securing crucial federal approval for the planned gas route into West Roxbury, which is being built at the request of National Grid as it struggles to satisfy surging demand for natural gas.
National Grid said it needs to increase the volume of gas it delivers to West Roxbury residential and business customers who have endured outages and hiccups in service.
“Ninety-eight percent of the residents and businesses in West Roxbury have natural gas, so there is a tremendous demand,’’ National Grid spokesman David Graves said. “The problem is there is not enough transmission pipeline capacity coming into New England to meet the demand.”
To meet the needs of National Grid, Spectra proposed building a connection to its massive Algonquin Incremental Market Project, a 1,127-mile natural gas pipeline that runs from New Jersey through New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
The proposed 5.1-mile spur into Boston would snake underground from near a golf course in Westwood, passing Legacy Place shopping center and a soccer field in Dedham, and winding under densely packed areas along Washington, Centre, and Grove streets in West Roxbury — where it would connect into National Grid’s existing gas lines.
Spectra has held open houses and public information meetings on the pipeline since 2012. In 2013, the energy company acquired land from the quarry’s owners, West Roxbury Crushed Stone Co., on a patch of Grove Street outside the pit, where trucks rumble in and out, and blasts are common.
The energy company intends to build a metering and regulating station on undeveloped land outside the quarry’s entrance on Grove Street.
After quietly sailing through a public notification process, Spectra formally applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last February for approval for the new line, called the West Roxbury Lateral Alternative Route.
The regulatory commission released a draft environmental impact statement on the project in August, and a final version is expected in January. A decision on whether to authorize the pipeline is not expected until the spring. If approved, the pipeline extension would begin operating by 2016.
Some West Roxbury residents active in neighborhood and environmental issues said they did not know about the pipeline until late in the process and were stunned it had been proposed.
“I was shocked to find out it was actually being placed next to an active blasting quarry,” said John St. Amand, president of the Charles River/Spring Valley Neighborhood Association. “There was no proper discussion for the residents of West Roxbury.”
Others, including Harvey, who runs the environmental group West Roxbury Saves Energy, have been demanding that Spectra answer safety questions, including what precautions will be taken to avoid an explosion along the line. She said she is still waiting for answers.
The draft environmental statement notes some safety risks associated with the project, but declared they were not significant. Federal regulators analyzed the schedule and logistics associated with having construction and operations existing so close to the quarry and found “no direct conflicts” that would inhibit the project or continued operation of the quarry, the document said.
Spectra retained consultants at GeoEnvironmental Inc. to analyze the potential effects on the proposed project from quarry blasting, including ground vibrations, air vibrations, hydrogeologic disturbance, and projectiles such as flying rock.
Spectra said it would bury the pipeline about 5 feet underground. Its pipeline would be coated with high-strength steel and enveloped in either compacted sand or a low density concrete-sand mixture to support the pipe and serve as a barrier from any problems.
In recent years, Spectra has faced a series of warnings and threats of lawsuits from the US office that regulates pipeline safety. In 2010 and 2011, documents show, the company’s Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC paid $154,700 in fines for failing to inspect transmission line valves, retain records of internal corrosion inspections for five years, and check pressure regulating stations.
Spectra’s Texas Eastern Transmission LP company has been fined $361,900 since 2006 for inspection violations, including lack of corrosion control and maintenance, federal documents show.
Spectra has addressed problems identified by the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and takes the agency’s recommendations “very seriously,” the company spokeswoman said.
Since learning of the proposed West Roxbury spur, residents have been pushing elected officials, including Mayor Martin J. Walsh, to take action. Groups such as the Committee to Stop the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline have formed to fight it. And in Dedham, selectmen voted 5 to 0 to oppose it.
“This presents a small, but real, catastrophic risk,’’ said Dr. Dennis J. Teehan Jr., one of the selectmen. “People need to understand that whatever gets built there is going to be there for decades.”
Joseph M. Lovett, a West Virginia environmental lawyer, said residents have clear reason to be concerned.
“The opportunity for accidents will always be there,’’ Lovett said. “Natural gas lines fail all over the country.”
US Representative Stephen F. Lynch has written letters to the chairwoman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, citing “grave concerns” about the project. Walsh and Boston councilors have joined the opposition chorus.
Lynch said he met with Walsh staff members and Spectra officials, and urged the energy company to take a fresh look at the route.
Spectra officials “are ready to come back to meet with the elected officials to talk about some other options,’’ Lynch said recently. “That’s what I anticipate — some other configurations that might work.”
But Hanley, the Spectra spokeswoman, said the decision on the route is up to the regulatory commission, which has yet to decide. A spokeswoman said the commission will consider all input submitted to it. Hanley and a National Grid official contend that neither the pipeline nor the planned metering station next to the quarry pose any danger.
“We have metering stations all over our service territory,’’ said Graves. “I live near a gas metering station. I don’t ever recall a gas metering station that caused any harm to the public.”
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Related:
"Meanwhile, natural gas prices — already elevated in Massachusetts because of pipeline constraints — have begun to creep upwards. Colder weather poses a risk to industries and large-scale users whose rates aren’t set in advance like residential customers, who can burn with abandon."
Looks like extortion to me.
Maybe if you plugged the leaks:
"Leaks in Boston area gas pipes exceed estimates" by David Abel, Globe Staff January 22, 2015
The amount of methane leaking from natural gas pipelines, storage facilities, and other sources in the Boston area is as much as three times greater than previously estimated — a loss that contributes to the region’s high energy costs and adds potent greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, according to a new study by scientists at Harvard University.
The leaks would be enough to heat as many as 200,000 homes a year and are valued at $90 million a year, the authors said.
The study — the first of its kind to quantify methane emissions from natural gas leaks in an urban area — also suggests that regulators are substantially underestimating the amount of the nation’s methane emissions. Methane is 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, meaning small amounts of the heat-trapping gas can have a significant impact on global warming.
And yet the planet is still cooling with record cold!
“We were surprised to find that emissions are as high as they seem to be,” said Steven Wofsy, a lead author of the study and professor of atmospheric chemistry at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “Once we understand where they come from, we can find ways to reduce them in a cost-effective way.”
The findings come after the Obama administration this month announced new regulations on the oil and gas industry that would cut methane emissions by up to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025.
The scientists said the study suggests that state and national regulators should be doing more to curb methane emissions at the end of the pipelines. The administration’s plan focuses on reducing leaks that have come mainly from the drilling, production, and transportation of oil and gas wells related to hydraulic fracturing, which has sparked a boom in US energy over the past decade.
First we were told that wasn't happening, and don't let this admission tarnish the agenda-pushing pre$$ narrative.
“The emissions in regions receiving natural gas need to be considered more seriously,” said Kathryn McKain, another lead author and graduate student at Harvard....
The answer, of course, is a carbon tax on you!
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Related: Explosion in Springfield
"Cape residents protest NStar’s use of herbicides; Company’s decision to resume use of herbicides below power lines draws ire" by David Abel, Globe Staff January 20, 2015
About two hours after NStar contractors spread a fine mist of chemicals to kill foliage beneath power lines near her farm on Cape Cod, Clare Bergh developed a migraine and began to notice a rash on her body. A friend on her property complained she could taste the chemicals in her mouth.
When Bergh testified about her experience shortly afterward to Harwich selectmen in October, the 52-year-old showed them pictures of red bumps all over her torso, arms, and legs.
“There was a disgusting, potent smell,” she said. “I don’t get rashes, unless I’m exposed to chemicals. It lasted three-and-a-half weeks.”
Bergh, neighbors, and local lawmakers have raised a raft of complaints and staged demonstrations in recent months to protest NStar’s resumption of spraying herbicides throughout Cape Cod after the company ended a four-year, self-imposed moratorium on the controversial method of controlling vegetation beneath its power lines.
NStar officials insist the state-sanctioned spraying is safe and say it is the most effective means of managing the growth of trees on their property, noting that overgrown vegetation is among the most common cause of electrical outages. They add that spraying is a common practice among utility companies around the country, and that it is regulated in Massachusetts by the state Department of Agricultural Resources.
Oh, well....
************
But opponents argue that the water supply on Cape Cod is uniquely vulnerable to the toxic chemicals, saying the sandy soil is porous and that their ground water is relatively easily contaminated by anything seeping below the surface.
Do you want power or water?
They have also complained that NStar has ignored their concerns, even after 15 towns on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard passed resolutions in recent years against the utility’s spraying program. The land beneath NStar’s power lines, however, isn’t subject to local regulations.
In a letter late last year to Governor Deval Patrick, state Senator Dan Wolf, a Harwich Democrat, wrote that he had “grave concern” about NStar’s vegetation control program. He said his constituents have complained that the company’s contractors have not notified abutters about spraying, have failed to abide by state rules, and have applied the herbicide where they shouldn’t. He urged the utility to halt spraying immediately.
“What they are doing, to me, is the height of corporate arrogance,” Wolf said in a telephone interview. “Nobody questions that we need to keep our power lines clear, but they are not willing to talk to us about alternative methods, like using saws.”
He added: “There are legitimate concerns that these chemicals could have a significant impact on our public health.”
Laura Kelley, director of Protect Our Cape Cod Aquifer, a local advocacy group, said the risks from spraying are heightened on the Cape because nearly everyone gets drinking water from the same aquifer. Most communities in the state get their drinking water from reservoirs or rivers elsewhere. “Anything that is applied to the surface of this precious ground leaches into the water table, contaminating our drinking water,” she said.
She and others noted that the Cape has long struggled with pollution to its ground water from the dramatic rise in development and the lack of sufficient waste-disposal systems. The remnants of sewage from septic tanks of more than 200,000 full-time Cape residents have seeped into the ground water and polluted estuaries, bays, and other bodies of water from Bourne to Orleans.
“NStar’s cocktail of herbicides, with their unknown long-term side effects, has no place on Cape Cod with its fragile environment,” Kelley said.
State environmental officials said they are trying to address residents’ concerns.
“We have worked to improve communications between all parties,” said Amy Mahler, a spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
She said an investigation by the Department of Agricultural Resources into what caused Clare Bergh’s rash found no evidence of the chemicals on her property. Investigators concluded that her rash was more likely a reaction to the exhaust fumes from the machines used to spread the chemicals than to the herbicide mixture.
***********
Bergh called the report’s conclusions preposterous. She said state investigators didn’t visit her property until more than three weeks after the spraying and that their sampling followed several significant rainstorms.
That is kind of what I thought when I read it.
She also said NStar violated state rules by spraying too close to her property and her water wells, and by not informing her in advance. She said the state had failed in its job to regulate the utility properly.
Success is the exception.
“I have used gas-powered blowers, trimmers, saws, mowers, and diesel tractors for over 35 years and have never developed any type of skin irritation resulting from exhaust fumes,” she said. “The skin inflammation, tingling of the tongue, and burning of the eye was the result of an allergic response to [the] chemicals.”
NStar officials said they had halted spraying on the Cape to try to assuage residents’ concerns while they sought to persuade them that their program is safe. They don’t apply the herbicides every year and maintained their property in more conventional ways during that time.
In October, a crew in Falmouth wearing large motorized contraptions buzzing on their backs and holding rifle-like tubes in their hands demonstrated how they applied the herbicide. They used a gauge to measure wind speed – they said they stop spraying if gusts exceed state limits – and aimed their mist blowers at the ground to limit dispersal of the chemicals in the air.
Bill Hayes, who oversees part of NStar’s herbicide program, said that mowing and clear cutting is a poor alternative to spraying, because it leaves roots intact and promotes the rapid re-sprouting of trees and plants. Herbicides allow the company to maintain low shrubs compatible with transmission lines and provide a suitable habitat for a range of wildlife.
After showing how the chemicals reduce the density of stems, Hayes said he understands why residents are concerned.
“We’ve heard them,” he said. “But we’re confident we’re using the best management practices.”
He said NStar plans to resume spraying on the Cape this year.
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Related: More tests needed on Cape herbicide spraying
They are just scratching the surface.
So which way is the wind blowing?
"More doubt is cast on Cape Wind plan; Developer drops 2 land contracts" by David Abel, Globe Staff January 24, 2015
The developer of Cape Wind has terminated contracts to buy land and facilities in Falmouth and Rhode Island, the latest sign that the $2.5 billion effort to become the nation’s first offshore wind farm may never produce a kilowatt of energy.
There is no wind.
The developer, which for more than a decade has sought to launch a project to build more than 100 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, was also suspended on Tuesday from participating in New England’s wholesale electricity markets by ISO New England, an independent company in
Holyoke that operates the region’s power grid.
The failure to make payments to preserve those contracts and to maintain its position with ISO New England comes 2½ weeks after the disclosure that National Grid and Northeast Utilities had terminated their contracts to buy power from Cape Wind, deals deemed critical to the project’s financial viability.
In the latest ominous sign for the project, officials at Cape Wind on Thursday acknowledged they stopped making payments on an agreement last July with the Rhode Island-based Quonset Development Corporation to lease 14 acres of land in North Kingstown, R.I., which was slated to become a staging and assembly area for the project.
“I can’t say why,” said Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind.
Or won't.
He declined to comment further or answer other questions about the future of Cape Wind....
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Yeah, pipelines are safest:
"Cancer-causing agent detected in water after pipeline spill" Associated Press January 21, 2015
GLENDIVE, Mont. — A cancer-causing component of oil has been detected in the drinking water supply of an eastern Montana city just downstream from a crude oil spill that entered the Yellowstone River.
Elevated levels of benzene were found in water samples taken from a treatment plant that serves about 6,000 people in the agricultural community of Glendive near the North Dakota border, officials said.
Scientists from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the benzene levels are above those recommended for long-term consumption but don’t pose a short-term health hazard.
Like the CDC has a shred of credibility.
Truckloads of bottled water were coming in Tuesday and residents were warned not to drink or cook with water from their taps.
Some residents criticized the timing of the Monday advisory, which came more than two days after 50,000 gallons of oil spilled from a break in a 12-inch pipeline owned by Wyoming-based Bridger Pipeline Co.
Adding to the frustrations was uncertainty over how long the water warning will last and why company and government officials still don’t know how to remove crude trapped beneath the ice-covered Yellowstone River.
Oh, f***! The Yellowstone River is frozen in this age of global warming?
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"Mont. city awaits all clear on water" Associated Press January 23, 2015
BILLINGS, Mont. — Initial tests show water supplies in a Montana city show no sign of a cancer-causing element for the first time since they were contaminated by a weekend crude oil spill, a state official said Thursday, raising hopes that thousands of residents can soon start drinking from their taps.
I wouldn't.
Glendive’s water no longer shows elevated levels of benzene, a carcinogenic component of oil, in tests taken from fire hydrants, said Jeni Garcin with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
If a laboratory confirms the results, officials will ask the city’s 6,000 residents to flush their taps by running them for 10 minutes. After that, the water would be drinkable.
Residents have been told not to drink or cook with city water since Monday night, two days after 40,000 gallons of oil spilled from a pipeline about 6 miles upstream along the Yellowstone River.
They have been using bottled water trucked in by the pipeline owner, Bridger Pipeline.
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Also see: Montana's Oil Boom
Hope this doesn't hurt it.
NDUs:
"Pipeline exposed near Mont. oil spill" Associated Press January 26, 2015
GLENDIVE, Mont. — Sonar indicates that part of an underground pipeline that spilled almost 40,000 gallons of oil into Montana’s Yellowstone River and fouled a local water supply is exposed on the riverbed.
The pipeline is exposed for about 50 feet near where the breach occurred Jan. 17, according to a news release from public agencies involved with the response.
The pipeline had been buried at least 8 feet under the riverbed, and the depth was last confirmed in September 2011.
The cause of the spill remains under investigation. It prompted a five-day shutdown of drinking-water services for 6,000 people in the city of Glendive after oil reached a treatment plant.
Previous accidents, including a 2011 Exxon Mobil pipeline spill on the Yellowstone near Billings, have demonstrated that pipelines beneath bodies of water can quickly become exposed by flood waters or other natural forces.
Bridger Pipeline Co., which is based in Casper, Wyo., said its pipeline will remain shut down from Glendive to near the Canada border until the river section is replaced.
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Maybe these protesters have a point after all:
"West Roxbury rally targets pipeline expansion; Protesters decry plan" by Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff January 25, 2015
Chanting “Stop Spectra,” nearly 100 residents marched around a busy rotary in West Roxbury Sunday to protest the expansion of a high-pressure natural gas pipeline into the neighborhood by Spectra Energy Corp. of Houston.
Protesters walked on a snow-clogged sidewalk for nearly an hour, carrying signs reading “Stop the West Roxbury lateral pipeline.” One resident beat a drum, as residents shouted “Spectra No!” between beats.
Some drivers honked horns in support as they drove through the rotary at West Roxbury Parkway. Others slowed down to take informational fliers prepared by residents opposed to the $1 billion project.
“This is one of the city’s busiest rotaries, so it’s a good spot for us,” said Paul Horn, a 30-year-resident of West Roxbury, who helped to organize the noontime rally. “We want to see the project stopped, or at the very least slowed down.”
The rally was staged as Spectra cleared a key permitting hurdle.
********
Marylee Hanley, director of Stakeholder Outreach for Spectra, wrote in an e-mail to the Globe that the company is “committed to responsible development, reliable operations and respectful, ongoing engagement with the communities we serve as this project proceeds.”
Still, grass-roots opponents vow to keep fighting. They said they plan to meet this week, and plan more public demonstrations.
Opponents already have won the backing of Mayor Martin J. Walsh....
The king of Bo$ton.
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This post has run dry.
