Pipeline foes meet in Fitchburg, vow resolve

Pipeline foes meet in Fitchburg, vow resolve

Stop the Pipeline Statewide Summit organizers examine maps created by private citizens using GIS mapping technology showing the 45 towns from Richmond to Dracut that the proposed Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline will affect. (LYNNE KLAFT)

 By Lynne Klaft CORRESPONDENT

FITCHBURG — It was a meeting of the minds of those who will be affected by the proposed Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline — landowners, conservationists, legislative and local municipal representatives — more than 400 of them, exchanging information, lending expertise and experience, and forming action groups to oppose the pipeline.

The Stop the Pipeline Statewide Summit was held at the Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School on Saturday with people from four states attending — New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts.

Townsend residents Stephen and Sharon Shea and Cindy Boundy studied the maps of all the towns affected along the pipeline route.

"They will be putting a compressor station right here in Townsend. It's huge! The noise will be like four jet engines; they say they need 25 acres just for the station. And it will be going right through Willard Brook State Park," said Ms. Boundy.

Compressor stations are built to boost pressure in natural gas lines to more efficiently transport the fuel. Plans show compressor stations every 50 or 60 miles, but a study of existing pipelines show the stations every 15 or 16 miles.

Summit organizers showed a video of an existing compressor station. The documentary film listed all of the volatile organic compounds that are emitted — methane, toluene and formaldehyde to name a few, as well as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides. The narrator said that the noise was like a jet engine with rocket fire-like blasts from blow-down valves.

The Sheas bought a parcel that abuts conservation land in Townsend to build their retirement home. The pipeline will be going right through their land and the conservation parcels.

"We came today to show our support and to learn more about the process. There have been information meetings and Kinder Morgan did come to Town Hall," said Mr. Shea. "(Kinder Morgan) made it sound like everything was going to be OK. I grew up in Bedford and my wife on a farm in Louisiana. We moved to Townsend 27 years ago because it was rural. The people in Townsend do not want a compression station and we will stay informed."

The process Mr. Shea was talking about is what Kinder Morgan will have to do to receive a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. At the moment, it takes several years for the process from start to finish. Speakers at the summit described the process to the audience and told them when and where public comment was allowed by the agency during its proceedings and how to make those comments.

"This is an extraordinarily complex process to understand. But you have to know that FERC has not rejected a pipeline since 2005. It's a stacked deck. They are not negotiating where the pipeline is going in, but how it will be constructed," said John Balco of Bolton, who plans to be part of getting the information out. "How do you fight this monster independent federal agency that has all the power? But today is different, look, there are over 400 people here. As the Conservation Law Foundation lady said, 'This is not Texas.'"

Residents of Bolton have been actively working to inform their fellow townspeople as a lateral gas line to the main pipeline, called the Worcester Lateral is planned to go through Berlin, Boylston and Bolton.

Worcester resident Errica Saunders said she came to the summit even though the pipeline will not be going anywhere near where she lives.
Hundreds rally against natural gas pipeline
"The pipeline will impact all of us, whether it be the air that we breathe, the apples that I pick at farms. We need to be unified to fight against it," said Ms. Saunders. "There are better renewable resources that we can use. I will stand with these people in their fight."

Ken Hartlege, president of the Nashoba Conservation Trust and a resident of Pepperell, told the audience about the pipeline route maps and photos of affected areas in the hallway.

"They're beautiful, right? The meadows, the forests and streams, the farmland, the wildflowers, the wildlife," said Mr. Hartlege. "These are the kinds of places that, if you saw them for the first time, might make you stop in your tracks and go 'wow' this is really special. This place is worth protecting."

The trust was given a wooded area that opened up into farmland, put it into conservation restriction and then in January of this year received a letter from Kinder Morgan. The proposed pipeline would cut a 100 foot wide path for over a mile through the woods, through the farm and under the Nashua River in Groton.

There are 1,500 acres of forested, agricultural and open meadow land that would be taken during construction of the pipeline, 230 wetlands and 118 bodies of water would be crossed, while 144 property owners reside within 50 feet of the construction zone, and when you add in the six lateral lines, the numbers go up, according to information from Kinder Morgan.

"So we decided to fight — for our homes, our land and the environment. And fight for a clean energy future that benefits the people of New England, and not a multi-billion dollar pipeline company from Texas," said Mr. Hartlege. "Our mission is two-fold; not only to stop the pipeline, but also to promote clean, sustainable energy. We marched the length of the pipeline from Richmond to Dracut, held a rally at the Statehouse. We held yard sales and nature walks. We wrote letters, thousands of letters, signed petitions and we passed resolutions in towns across the state opposing the pipeline. It's our collective action that has brought us this far and it will be our collective action that carries us forward. Now we are taking the fight to FERC."  ***************************************
 Hundreds rally against natural gas pipeline
Project could affect Northern Massachusetts 

Marion Stoddart attended a summit in Fitchburg Saturday, where hundreds rallied against a proposal that would carry natural gas across northern Massachusetts.

 

FITCHBURG — Several hundred people from three states packed a high school auditorium Saturday to rally against a proposed pipeline that would carry high-pressure natural gas across Northern Massachusetts.

Protesters from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York staged the ‘‘Stop the Pipeline Statewide Summit’’ at Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School in Fitchburg. The crowd included elected officials, environmental activists, and landowners whose property the pipeline would cross or pass near.


‘‘It’s all about numbers to the proponents of the pipeline,’’ Ken Hartlage, president of the Nashoba Conservation Trust, told the crowd. ‘‘They don’t care about your home, your farm, your legacy for your children.’’

Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. plans to route the pipeline from Richmond, Mass., near the New York border, to Dracut, near the New Hampshire line. Supporters say the pipeline, which still needs regulatory approval, would help relieve the need for more natural gas in New England.

Protest organizer Elaine Mroz of Lunenburg, along with her siblings, owns a tract of woods in Winchendon that has been in her family since 1901. She said a call from a surveyor last winter alerted her to the pipeline proposal.

‘‘That’s kind of our family homestead; we know all the rocks and the trees,” Mroz said, pointing out the land’s location on a large map of the proposed pipeline route. She said that, should the pipeline be constructed, a path up to 100 feet wide would be cut through the forest.

But Mroz said she’s looking beyond just the concerns of her fellow landowners. She said the pipeline could help feed the dependency on nonrenewable energy sources.

‘‘If we invest in this pipeline, it’s going to lock us into gas,’’ she said. ‘‘There are a lot of people here looking at how we can make a better energy policy.’’

Mroz’s sister, Carolyn Sellars of Townsend, said awareness of the proposal had spread slowly but said organizers hoped Saturday’s summit would help build and maintain opposition to the project through the lengthy federal review process.

‘‘Everybody that I’ve talked to in Massachusetts isn’t going to give this up,’’ she said. ‘‘This is climate change, right here. It might have started as a backyard issue, but not anymore.’’

The company’s prefilings with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission indicate the project would require 91 miles of new right of way in Massachusetts and 37 miles of colocation with existing power lines. The report says the project affects 1,554 total acres for construction, affecting 357 acres of federal endangered or threatened species habitat.

Governor Deval Patrick’s energy and environmental affairs secretary, Maeve Bartlett, has cautioned federal regulators that preliminary reviews show the pipeline could cross parks, wetlands, forests, conservation lands, farms, and areas where protected wildlife live.

Environmental activists and others — including some from New Hampshire, who fear the pipeline could end up being rerouted through the southern part of that state — said they hope Governor-elect Charlie Baker will intervene and help create more incentives for green energy jobs after he takes office in January.