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West Roxbury residents say planned natural-gas facility could be a terrorist target; want state investigation
By adamg on Mon, 12/14/2015 - 9:48pm
Howard Sorett makes his case.
A station that would pump high-pressure natural gas into the National Grid network just off Grove and Centre streets would be a "ticking time bomb" that could prove easy pickings for any terrorist who wants to immolate an entire neighborhood, members of the West Roxbury Civic and Improvement Association agreed tonight.
The group agreed to seek a "risk assessment" by Patrick McMurray, the state's undersecretary for homeland security after member Howard Sorett read from a federal Homeland Security document about how above-ground natural-gas facilities are a "viable terrorist target."
Spectra Energy is building a 750-psi pipeline for Algonquin Gas Transmission from Westwood through Dedham into West Roxbury, where it will terminate at a "metering and regulating" station at Grove and Centre streets, across from the West Roxbury quarry.
Sorett said the West Roxbury facility would be "exposed and difficult to protect" and, unlike similar structures in the rest of the country, sits in the middle of a densely populated area.
Although protests against the pipeline, which would travel under Washington and Grove streets, have garnered the most attention outside the neighborhood, residents who live near the metering facility have been holding evening vigils at the site for more than a year now.
Seamus Whalen, a member of both the civic association and Stop the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline, added that he wants to know whether the city of Boston has drafted plans to deal with an explosion at the site, whether caused by terrorists, negligence or an accident.
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Comments
On p. 73 of the following
On p. 73 of the following filing with the MA Dept of Public Utilities, National Grid justifies the West Roxbury Lateral pipeline in part as insurance in case an existing nearby lateral pipeline, the "J lateral", fails due to "third party damage". That is, they cite risk of pipeline failure to justify a new pipeline that is just as much at risk of the same kind of failure.
www.naturalgaswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Grid-Algonquin-Contra...
Why doesn't that make sense?
Why doesn't that make sense? Why wouldn't you want a redundant backup system? Let's say one of the two facilities fails for whatever reason -- wouldn't it be good to have a second so that people aren't without fuel for heat in the middle of winter while a single facility is out of commission?
It's just like having the Reservoir in case the water pipe from the Quabbin fails, sure you have to boil the water, but you have water.
Natural gas (methane)
Natural gas (methane) explodes. Water does not.
These methane pipelines are extremely high pressure (750 psi. in this case) to put next to anyone's front door. Walk along East St. in Dedham as it meets up with Washington St. to see the risk that people are being told they have to accept.
No, methane burns
No, methane burns (deflagrates). It needs to be mixed with oxygen to explode (detonate). The real danger is not the pressure in the pipe (which keeps the methane in liquid form, unmixed with oxygen), it's a slow leak that allows low lying areas to fil with an air-methane mixture.
ISIS does not have the patience to blow up West Roxbury by that method, and the metering facility is going to notice the missing gas from a slow leak, because it's their job to make sure someone pays for the gas.
Douchenozzle
In MA, the ratepayer pays for all the gas including leaked gas.
The gas company acknowledges the risk of sabotage resulting in catastrophe but you know better? Douchenozzle.
because failure for a 750 psi
because failure for a 750 psi gas pipeline in a dense urban neighborhood has larger consequences than failure of a redundant water pipe (which, by the way, contractors for Spectra broke inadvertently recently: http://dedham.wickedlocal.com/article/20151028/NEWS/151025399
what's the problem
I thought most of the terrorists are white supremacists or something so what's the big deal, it'll never happen here.
Huh?
Wha?
They said they thought most
They said they thought most of the terrorists are white supremacists or something so what's the big deal, and that it'll never happen here.
It's true
If you define terrorist as someone who is attempting to cause mayhem to an indiscriminate group of people, most terrorists in America are white males with Christian upbringing, though religion is rarely a factor in the attack.
A vast majority of terror attacks are with firearms and small homemade explosives. Gun control will help prevent terrorism, not relocating natural gas facilities.
The argument that they shouldn't build the gas pipeline due to terrorist reasons is weak. As has been shown, everyplace can be a "terrorist target" so the idea that this facility is somehow a huge target is questionable. The risk of an accident occurring due to mechanical failure or unintentional human error is far, far greater. The anti-pipeline people are grasping at straws with the terrorist angle and jumping on the terror bandwagon isn't painting them in a good light.
not white supremicists, right wing domestic terror
Although I'm with you on Dylan Roof, who killed 9 black people in church. That was straight up terrorizing black people but the FBI charged him with a hate crime not a terror violation.
DHS intelligence report warns of domestic right-wing terror threat
45 people killed by Muslim terrorists in US since 9/11
48 people killed by right-wing terrorists in US since 9/11
400,000 killed by gun-related crime in US since 9/11
April 19, 1995
I have a lot of sympathy for
I have a lot of sympathy for the neighborhood and agree a pipeline isn't probably that safe, but this seems to be reaching a bit.
So for consistency, these
So for consistency, these people are going around and finding all the other existing "terrorist targets" in W. Roxbury and demanding they be removed, right? Because it's really terrorist targets these people care about, right? This isn't just grasping at straws now to continue trying to NIMBY the pipeline, is it?
Straw man arguments
When oceanfront mansion owners suddenly worry about birds.
When pilots decide they'll waive the flexible parts of crew rest policy, to get back to home- base on Christmas eve.
When W Rox owners cry terrorism.
In all cases, they may have legit points they can raise. But in all of these cases, I'm highly suspicious of their real motives.
Folks, just to be clear---the
Folks, just to be clear---the risk of a terrorist attack on the pipeline M&R station may sound remote (though probably no more so certainly than attacks on a facility for the disabled in Calif.), but in any event, it is just one of unacceptable risks associated with this project. Take a moment to listen to the comments of gas safety expert Mark McDonald, who was probably the first to sound the alarm to the community and elected officials over a year ago, right after he found out about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOaRMJhWbpA
Add to that Spectra's spotty safety record (as attested by recent whistle blower comments by present or former employees), and apart from questions about whether this gas is even truly needed (and well-founded suspicions that it is actually intended for export), and you've got plenty of reason for concern. Even according to the industry's own standards and practices, a high-pressure pipeline of this nature simply doesn't belong in a urban neighborhood. Think San Bruno, Calif. 2010 which involved a pipeline of roughly 1/2 this pressure.
More information at swrl.info.
What if Ireland invades?
They would most likely use West Roxbury as one of their forward bases of operation, and might even use the Corrib as some sort of indoctrination center. This pipeline just further makes West Roxbury a target of Irish aggression.
Just say no to this pipeline!!!
Plus the Irish have already
Plus the Irish have already intimate knowledge of digging gas pipe trenches.........