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City admits defeat on West Roxbury pipeline; now trying to get gas company to describe what transfer station will look like
By adamg on Tue, 01/12/2016 - 8:27am
West Roxbury residents last night pleaded with a mayoral aide to have Mayor Walsh use his bully pulpit to continue the fight against the West Roxbury natural-gas pipeline, but the aide told them that ship has sailed and now City Hall is focusing on getting the pipeline construction company to come to a public meeting to describe the exact size and scope of the "metering and regulating station" at Grove and Centre Streets.
Several hours after Spectra Energy began clearing trees from the site, Chris Rusk, the mayor's liaison for West Roxbury, then told members of the West Roxbury Civic and Improvement Association that so far, Spectra Energy has not responded to the city's request for such a meeting.
Rusk said Walsh still opposes the pipeline and station but after losing a court battle to delay construction, City Hall realizes "this thing at this point is happening; we've lost in court, we don't have any sort of oversight. He added, "we've just been steamrolled by the FERC process."
Residents, however, told Rusk that their fight is far from over. In fact, one resident managed to block trucks from entering the Grove/Centre site for about 45 minutes yesterday. Residents said supposedly new National Grid mains along the site are already leaking.
Last month, the association voted to ask state homeland-security officials to consider the potential terrorism ramifications of placing a high-pressure natural-gas transfer station - where gas from a pipeline would be injected into National Grid's network - in a densely settled residential neighborhood.
Last night, residents said they will continue to fight both continued pipeline construction down Washington and Grove streets - expected to resume this spring after a winter break - and the metering station.
Numerous residents and supporters have been arrested in protests that failed to significantly slow construction of the pipeline in a Washington Street trench.
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Comments
I want to know
How far does the blast zone radiate? I don't give two rat's hats what this ugly building is going to look like, how many gum ball machines it's going to have in its lobby, nor whether it will have a bench for old granny to sit on outside of its tree-lined entryway. Hey, you think I'm nuts? I could tell you stories about a guy climbing up a toilet to get away from a molasses explosion that no one thought would happen.
45 minutes!
That's a world record!
Typo alert
Mayor Walsh, not Mayor Walk
I'm neutral on the pipeline in that I do believe that we need to prepare for expanded use of natural gas in our region as the economy grows as green alternatives are still far enough away we need to be realistic in our planning but I don't know the extent to which this piece is vital.
However, the process here is a bit disheartening in that it's not clear that the city has any jurisdiction to control this kind of project and it should.
Typo fixed
Thanks.
What a Freudian slip!
Mayor Walk has done nothing to improve pedestrian signals across the city. Many pedestrian signals continue to make little sense.
Mr. Walsh
Casino? Call the lawyers! We're fighting this one to the grave!
Controversial Gas Facility? Meh, not much we can do.
Wan term Mayah!
Wan term Mayah!
Pipeline = pipedream
HOW MUCH GAS DO WE NEED????
http://www.northeastgas.org/pdf/system_enhance0116.pdf
Hallelujah - " Pipe Line will be Built"
Congratulations to the Visionaries who planned and enginered this critical energy infrastructure improvemnt. It will provide for vastly incresed reliability and additonasl capacity to feed over 45,000 homes and small business. Shout -out to the Federsl Energy Regulatory Commision for their due dilligence and subsequent approval.
Hats -off to all the politicans, Mayor's office, etc. who played the local , not in my backyard, self appointed selfish blowhards like a violin. The Pol's were all informed about this project, shown plans, etc. - years ago.
This Pipeline is truley a victory for the enviroment and foward progress. 2016 is looking up !!
No spellcheck at your house?
How did you manage to write all that without spellcheck kicking in?
You might want to do a little more research on this pipeline and learn a little about who the gas is for and the dangers it poses to the community as well as to the environment.
Maybe we do need more natural
Maybe we do need more natural gas but don't you think step 1 should be to fix all the leaks in the pipelines first before adding more gas to the system? Also, anyone who thinks adding a high pressure gas line and metering station right next to a blasting quarry where the ground is shaken on a regular basis is not is probably not the brightest.