Gas pipeline company sues Cambridge to get access to a bit of land in Lincoln near the city's reservoir

Update: City responds.

A Texas gas-pipeline company yesterday asked a federal judge to order the city of Cambridge to let it cut down trees on a city-owned lot in Lincoln so it can haul in some pipeline equipment for installation on a neighboring parcel the company owns.

In a lawsuit filed in US District Court in Boston, Algonquin Gas Transmission of Houston says the tree-filled quarter-acre Cambridge lot off Rte. 2 westbound - which the city uses as part of its buffer around its Hobbs Brook Reservoir along Routes 2 and 128 - is the only feasible spot for hauling in a new back-up "meter and regulator" station that can help monitor and control gas pressure in the company's pipelines, including those feeding Cambridge itself.

The company cites a federal law that lets private pipeline companies use eminent domain to construct and operate pipelines and related facilities in its demand for a "temporary workspace easement" to use the city lot. It filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to let it begin cutting down the trees immediately even as its lawsuit proceeds.

In an affidavit filed with the suit, Charles Peabody, an Algonquin project manager acknowledges, that Cambridge is refusing to allow access because it would require cutting down at least 55 trees. But Peabody writes that without the work, Cambridge and surrounding communities could be at risk of losing their gas supply next year, when the company is planning a major overhaul of some pipelines in the region, including the "meter and regulator" station that is normally in use.

Algonquin says the current equipment, at the connection of an Algonquin pipeline and one owned by another company, sits on a metal "sled" that was used to haul it to the site in the early 2000 and which was supposed to be temporary, but which was never replaced. Now, the wooden supports for the sled are rotting due to "continued exposure to the elements."

The $14.5-million project to replace the equipment would involve bringing in new equipment and using a crane on the Cambridge land to drop in a permanent building that would better protect the equipment - from both the elements and vandals - and mean less noise when the equipment is in use, Algonquin says. Peabody writes:

If the facility is not replaced in the near future, it will increasingly threaten the supply of natural gas to Cambridge and surrounding communities.

Algonquin says it wants to start the work next month and that the timing is vital, not just to allow for other pipeline maintenance in 2025, but because MassDOT will not allow work over the winter for fear it could interfere with snow and ice removal along Rte. 2.

Peabody writes that Algonquin first approached Cambridge last summer and held a number of meetings with Cambridge officials on the plans. He says the company reduced the proposed impact by agreeing to have the new station built off site and then brought there on a new "skid" and lowered onto the Algonquin site by a crane. It also managed to reduce the number of trees that needed to be cut down from 75 to 55, he avers.

But Cambridge wouldn't budge and, at a site visit on Feb. 27, city officials said they would not approve a project that meant even one tree getting cut down. He adds Algonquin made one last formal proposal on April 25, which included payment of $10,000 for the temporary easement, but that Cambridge again said no.

Complete complaint (592k PDF).
Complete affidavit (21M PDF).