Protesters don hard hats, wield spray paint in protest against West Roxbury pipeline

However, as part of their protests about the gas line, these residents should be required to provide a proper analysis and study to back up their claims as to why, if the pipeline is built adjacent to the quarry, that a disaster will inevitably happened. And if they truly believe these claims have legitimate merit, and are not just a stalling tactic to extort mitigation payments (the biggest scam going) from the project proponent, they should be willing to take those steps to prove them.

Saying "well, it should be obvious" and "it's a crummy thing, build it elsewhere because we don't want another crummy thing here (a.k.a the "environmental justice" sham) " , and the policy of forcing project proponents to disprove claims doesn't cut it anymore.

This is NOT NIMBY. In fact the residents and City have suggested alternative sites within the West Rosbury area.

Spectra insists it must place the line and high pressure meter station at Grove and Centre streets. Right in the middle of a high traffic area, right next to an active quarry with blasting at least two times a week, right in the middle of a densely populated area.

God forbid there is a rupture along the route and West Roxbury will be off the map.

Remember when the "new" (only ~10 years old) water main burst in the western suburbs but the 100+ year old water mains did just fine? New isn't always better.

But point taken. I don't know if this pipeline near the query is a good idea but I do know I'm not qualified to say one way or another. It seems like many people opposed to the pipeline are using the query as a pretext for something they'd be opposed to regardless.

2- gas leaks on the street would have less explosive potential since there is lots of air for the gas to dissipate into, versus a leak in a house where the gas builds up and becomes a much more dangerous situation (either by explosion or by suffocation)

A buried pipe is essentially sitting in a long cylindrical hole in the dirt. When something leaks out of a buried pipe, it often follows the path of the long cylindrical hole for a long way before dissipating sideways through the dirt. It can find its way into other long cylindrical holes -- e.g., surrounding your sewer connection, your water connection, your power distribution grid -- and from there into all sorts of interesting places.

If the pipe by the quarry breaks open, the chance of it actually blowing up are infinitesimal.

On what are you basing this? Could you please supply your references? This pipe isn't a typical street distribution pipe. It is a vastly higher-pressure regional distribution supply pipeline.

By your telling, that huge crater in California doesn't exist because it never happened.

is probably due to the fact that if someone's home, they'll probably notice the "gas smell" long before the concentration of gas reaches the right level where an ignition source can cause an explosion. The odorant used in natural gas is quite strong, and is perceptible by the average person at *very* low levels.

There's a fairly narrow range of fuel:air concentration (known as a "stoichiometric ratio") at which such an explosion can occur.

I believe that the concern isn't so much the pipeline itself, but the potential for damage due to repeated quarry activity. Are there any quarries directly adjacent to any pipelines elsewhere?