Kinder Morgan planned for pipeline protests a year before project started
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SANDISFIELD — Kinder Morgan, which has, since May, paid
Massachusetts State Police more than $1 million for pipeline security,
began communicating with State Police about the potential for protests
and gas explosions almost a year before the project began.
Emails obtained by The Eagle show that, beginning in June 2016, Kinder Morgan and State Police officials started arranging meetings about "possible adversities" facing construction of the Connecticut Expansion Project, a 13-mile, tri-state natural gas spur with a 3.8-mile Massachusetts loop.
The project, which was completed in November in a corridor with two existing pipelines, was built by Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., a Kinder Morgan subsidiary.
In a June 30, 2016, email from State Police Lt. David Buell to Kinder Morgan's Donald Perkins, a New England operations manager, Buell said he wants to "start an email dialogue ... in case there are any developments," to which Perkins responded that, while the "project is moving forward," the company has found itself in court over the Otis State Forest easement that Tennessee Gas said it required for the project.
"We are awaiting the outcome of some legal proceedings regarding state lands by the end of July," Perkins wrote July 14, 2016. "In my opinion, things will really heat up once we get final approval and we start work."
Perkins was right. It was the company's encroachment into state-owned lands that added a new twist to an already controversial project, since the nearly 2-mile state forest stretch was also protected for the public by Article 97 of the state constitution.
The court ruling would strengthen the precedent that even the highest state protections can't outmaneuver federal interstate commerce law.
The state Attorney General's Office found this out, and lost.
Protesters were already outside Berkshire Superior Court with a mock coffin that said, "Here Lies Otis State Forest and the Demise of its Article 97 Protection - Rest in Pieces."
Enter, State Police
Emails obtained by The Eagle show that, beginning in June 2016, Kinder Morgan and State Police officials started arranging meetings about "possible adversities" facing construction of the Connecticut Expansion Project, a 13-mile, tri-state natural gas spur with a 3.8-mile Massachusetts loop.
The project, which was completed in November in a corridor with two existing pipelines, was built by Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., a Kinder Morgan subsidiary.
In a June 30, 2016, email from State Police Lt. David Buell to Kinder Morgan's Donald Perkins, a New England operations manager, Buell said he wants to "start an email dialogue ... in case there are any developments," to which Perkins responded that, while the "project is moving forward," the company has found itself in court over the Otis State Forest easement that Tennessee Gas said it required for the project.
"We are awaiting the outcome of some legal proceedings regarding state lands by the end of July," Perkins wrote July 14, 2016. "In my opinion, things will really heat up once we get final approval and we start work."
Perkins was right. It was the company's encroachment into state-owned lands that added a new twist to an already controversial project, since the nearly 2-mile state forest stretch was also protected for the public by Article 97 of the state constitution.
The court ruling would strengthen the precedent that even the highest state protections can't outmaneuver federal interstate commerce law.
The state Attorney General's Office found this out, and lost.
Protesters were already outside Berkshire Superior Court with a mock coffin that said, "Here Lies Otis State Forest and the Demise of its Article 97 Protection - Rest in Pieces."
Enter, State Police
And at the start of tree cutting in early May, those same activists
headed to the state forest, beginning a relentless series of
demonstrations over the next seven months that would lead to nearly 100
arrests in a fight against a pipeline the activists said would add to
global warming, environmental desecration and would provide unnecessary
additional gas to Connecticut.
Both on- and off-duty State Police were already on hand to keep activists off the pipeline construction site. It was a mostly cordial relationship between protesters and police, but as younger activists joined in, police strategy grew firmer, the atmosphere tense and, on one occasion, police dogs were brought out and a stun gun used.
But it is payment for off-duty pipeline work that is raising more activist ire and resident questions about hefty overtime pay from a powerful corporation to armed public servants protecting part of a controversial $93 million private investment.
In March, just before the work began, and before Tennessee Gas' unmarked private security started roaming these woods, State Police invited staff from Kinder Morgan and the Department of Conservation & Recreation to the Lee Barracks to talk about the expected protests.
In April, State Police Lt. Paul D'auteuil sent an email to Kinder Morgan's Carey Diehl asking about "the availability of an all-terrain vehicle to carry personnel and equipment in the event we need to deal with people along the pipeline where our cruisers can't go."
D'auteuil also asked Diehl for the names and phone numbers of landowners "in the event we need to call them for specific issues or trespassing notices/confirmation ... feel free to call me anytime."
D'auteuil's emails showed that pipeline safety was also a big concern.
"How large of an explosion and blast area would it be?" D'auteuil asked, thinking of a worst-case scenario. "How quickly can the gas be terminated or shut off from a leak/blast? Does a gas leak affect air quality? How far would the evacuation area be for a blast or leak?"
D'auteuil further said that he was preparing a presentation for his "Command Staff, the EOPSS (Executive Office of Public Safety and Security) and other stakeholders ... with solutions to possible adversities we may encounter."
The origins of money
State Police spokesman David Procopio previously told The Eagle that State Police overtime work does not differ from other standard operations like the Boston Marathon. It is, he said, to keep people and property safe and to manage traffic.
But in this case, it was the rallies and trespassing by protesters that prompted the off-duty details that cost the company so much.
The latest invoices obtained by The Eagle show that Kinder Morgan paid State Police $108,868.46 for its November pipeline presence, pushing the total payments from the company to about $1.1 million. Procopio said State Police have not been deployed for pipeline duty since the day before Thanksgiving.
Anti-pipeline activist Vivienne Simon said this particular function of State Police is "outside of traditional police business,"
and wanted to know another example of State Police amassing in large numbers over many months to provide security to a large private company.
Procopio did not provide one, saying this would be a "false distinction," since State Police deployments "focus on the mission, not the entity."
"The type of mission, and whether it is characterized as a detail or overtime, is determined by the scope and nature of the mission itself, and not by the organization or company that is undertaking the project or event," he said. "It matters not if the organization is for-profit or not-for-profit."
Simon said it does matter.
"The [Boston] Marathon is not a for-profit corporation," said Simon, who is a member of the Sugar Shack Alliance, a group that staged most of the demonstrations in Otis State Forest. "This is a for-profit corporation taking over our state resources — our land and our state police force."
Heather Bellow can be reached at hbellow@berkshireeagle.com or on Twitter at @BE_hbellow and 413-329-6871.
Both on- and off-duty State Police were already on hand to keep activists off the pipeline construction site. It was a mostly cordial relationship between protesters and police, but as younger activists joined in, police strategy grew firmer, the atmosphere tense and, on one occasion, police dogs were brought out and a stun gun used.
But it is payment for off-duty pipeline work that is raising more activist ire and resident questions about hefty overtime pay from a powerful corporation to armed public servants protecting part of a controversial $93 million private investment.
In March, just before the work began, and before Tennessee Gas' unmarked private security started roaming these woods, State Police invited staff from Kinder Morgan and the Department of Conservation & Recreation to the Lee Barracks to talk about the expected protests.
In April, State Police Lt. Paul D'auteuil sent an email to Kinder Morgan's Carey Diehl asking about "the availability of an all-terrain vehicle to carry personnel and equipment in the event we need to deal with people along the pipeline where our cruisers can't go."
D'auteuil also asked Diehl for the names and phone numbers of landowners "in the event we need to call them for specific issues or trespassing notices/confirmation ... feel free to call me anytime."
D'auteuil's emails showed that pipeline safety was also a big concern.
"How large of an explosion and blast area would it be?" D'auteuil asked, thinking of a worst-case scenario. "How quickly can the gas be terminated or shut off from a leak/blast? Does a gas leak affect air quality? How far would the evacuation area be for a blast or leak?"
D'auteuil further said that he was preparing a presentation for his "Command Staff, the EOPSS (Executive Office of Public Safety and Security) and other stakeholders ... with solutions to possible adversities we may encounter."
The origins of money
State Police spokesman David Procopio previously told The Eagle that State Police overtime work does not differ from other standard operations like the Boston Marathon. It is, he said, to keep people and property safe and to manage traffic.
But in this case, it was the rallies and trespassing by protesters that prompted the off-duty details that cost the company so much.
The latest invoices obtained by The Eagle show that Kinder Morgan paid State Police $108,868.46 for its November pipeline presence, pushing the total payments from the company to about $1.1 million. Procopio said State Police have not been deployed for pipeline duty since the day before Thanksgiving.
Anti-pipeline activist Vivienne Simon said this particular function of State Police is "outside of traditional police business,"
and wanted to know another example of State Police amassing in large numbers over many months to provide security to a large private company.
Procopio did not provide one, saying this would be a "false distinction," since State Police deployments "focus on the mission, not the entity."
"The type of mission, and whether it is characterized as a detail or overtime, is determined by the scope and nature of the mission itself, and not by the organization or company that is undertaking the project or event," he said. "It matters not if the organization is for-profit or not-for-profit."
Simon said it does matter.
"The [Boston] Marathon is not a for-profit corporation," said Simon, who is a member of the Sugar Shack Alliance, a group that staged most of the demonstrations in Otis State Forest. "This is a for-profit corporation taking over our state resources — our land and our state police force."
Heather Bellow can be reached at hbellow@berkshireeagle.com or on Twitter at @BE_hbellow and 413-329-6871.
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