I wish I could take credit for the wonderful map, as it’s the kind of thing I would do if I were retired, but thanks to the people at HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team) and in particular their co-founder and president Audrey Schulman, we can now view Newton’s gas leaks, as reported by National Grid in their annual Service Quality Report filed with the Department of Public Utilities in March, on a map, instead of searching through the statewide list of leaks as described here.
This is just a screen capture, but to search your neighborhood, or check how long a leak has been known to National Grid, you can go to this page which has links to maps for Newton and the 146 other Massachusetts communities HEET has mapped so far.
If you appreciate having this information, if you think it’s ridiculous that it took the recently passed state law to require disclosure of gas leak locations, and that when forced to report them, National Grid provided the information in the most user-unfriendly format possible (in order of “Leak Number”), and has resisted providing Newton and other communities with their date in Excel spreadsheet form so it could be sorted, say, alphabetically by street, please consider making a small (or large!) contribution to HEET (a 501c3 non-profit) via their PayPal link to help them continue this effort. I can attest that it must have been very time-consuming, because my Newton Tree Conservancy colleague Ron Joseph, and Marc Welch, were both trying working on turning the Service Quality Report tables into sortable Excel documents before we all got busy with spring tree plantings, and it was a messy process. And that’s before any map creation. HEET considered charging a small one-time fee to anyone looking at the maps, but ultimately decided it was more important to make the information accessible. I contributed $10 because checking this map is a lot quicker than searching the PDF for “NEW” for Newton which looks like this:
The maps are only as good as the National Grid list, however, and based on gas leaks I’m familiar with, not everything that ought to be there is. Parmenter Road gas leaks show as repaired; they’re not (as of our early April gas leak checks for tree spots). Chris Steele’s gas leak on Woodward is not there, though it’s been a problem for years and was there (still, or again) in early April. A leak on Day Street we reported in October 2014, which National Grid actually repaired — not listed. Nor are leaks at 158 & 161 Ridge Ave, also reported in October, one of which seemed to be repaired, one not. Also not showing up (on the Weston map) is the years-long, probably decades-long leak at the Rt 30 bridge over 128, which I regularly smell coming off the 128 southbound exit ramp to Rt 30 east late at night, except for a few months apparent respite following night repair work a couple of summers ago.
So while it’s a good resource to know where to think twice before planting a tree, or repaving a street, it’s not a guarantee of no leaks.
Wow. Thanks for posting Julia.
, Thank you Julia foronce again bringing to our attention the gas leak issue. And what has happened since the last alert ?
Apparently absolutely nothing, except that gas leak reports at least on my street have been deleted,.. Or at least dont show up up on your map. A couple of years ago as I was then watching the trees dying on Coyne Road, I found records ( buried somewhere , ( which now seem irretrievable ), that indicated that the type and severity of leaks were supposed to be fixed in an 18 month period. These leaks had been reported 4-5 years earlier ! Nothing has been done !!!
When Inquiring of our cities legal department as to why the city has not taken action against the Gas Co. ( as Brookline and 4 other MA communities have done ), I was told that the Gas Co has deep pockets,.. will fight strongly against having to make repairs,.. would “have to pass onto its customers the exorbitant costs involved,.. and most dissapointedly the city is not willing to expend the legal monies necessary to take up the fight.
So apparently we can kiss goodby the “Garden” discriptive adjective associated with “City” that we, for so many years now, have proudly poffered.
So what will we call ourselves when all of ourtrees will have been memorialized by the thousands of rotting stumps left at or road sides ? Sun City ? Gas City ? Or most appropriately perhaps, ” The City of Hot Air “?
Any better suggestions out there?
@Julia Malkie
Julia, as a regular on Village14 you are certainly familiar with our guidelines that discourage personal attacks.
Sorry, the 12 year old boy in me is never far from the surface 😉
@Jerry – no, not far in the least.
@Julia – thanks for bringing this issue back to folks’ attention (leaving any personal gas problems Chris S may have to one side for the moment). There are multiple layers to the problem, and they all have bad effects. Even ‘low grade’ leaks can kill trees over a prolonged period; gas that is leaking out of the system is not being used but someone is paying for the net loss and it usually means the utility customers. Leaking gas into the atmosphere at the same time we’re trying to reduce emissions is a lousy formula for cutting greenhouse gases. And as my neighbor in NH used to say (granted he worked for the electric company): “gas goes boom.” I recall several years ago there were some Newton folks doing measurement and mapping locally, and had gathered quite a bit of data, this link may be related http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/08/17/thousands_of_small_leaks_found_in_natural_gas_lines_in_boston_area/
I also seem to recall that at one point the then-COO of Newton, Bob Rooney, was working on the problem but I suspect it has fallen through the proverbial crack, eh? Would I be totally cynical to suggest that perhaps some of our elected officials (Aldermen in particular) might be better spending their time and energy on a problem such as this one, rather than worrying about their job title, banning plastic shopping bags, and reducing the noise from leaf blowers? Am I totally out to lunch here, or is this kind of like what we call Priorities? Just wondering.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the utilities do not take orders from our city government. I’ve heard that NationalGrid plans to replace all the lines in Newton and has already started doing so. For the last few summers, I’ve seen them digging trenches and replacing the old pipe with yellow PVC, one or two streets at a time. It would be interesting to know what their plan is and what time frame we’re looking at.
Another problem is that gas meters traditionally were installed in basements when they really should be outside. Gas is much more likely to “go boom” when the leak is inside the house.
@Adam
I wasn’t necessarily thinking that utilities would ‘take orders’ from our city government, but having said that, municipal government is in fact responsible for public safety and related issues from maintaining roadways to protecting residents from hazards and so on. Certainly if it is deemed relevant for the City of Newton to enact legislation regulating plastic bags and leaf blower noise, it doesn’ t seem to me that gas leaks are totally outside the pale. In this case, the immediate danger, liability, potential cost and scope of required response by police, fire, ambulance etc to a gas explosion, for example, seems a bit more serious than the impact of a plastic shopping bag cast adrift on the sidewalk or the raucous blare of a leaf blower next door. As I said, ‘gas goes boom.’
I have had the experience of walking my dogs around the block in my neighborhood and hitting a strong smell of gas as we went along the sidewalk. The only good news here is that because the location is outdoors, the gas does not concentrate or build up and so explosion is unlikely. To your point, if a leak is indoors, the gas can build up in a room or enclosed space, and then – boom.
Question is, what do we do about it? We all know that relying on the offending entity (the gas supplier or distributor) is not a great strategy. Think about asking tobacco companies to help cut smoking. Anyway, all I’m saying is someone needs to own it.