We’ve spoken about gas leaks a few times here on the blog, but clearly the problem is not yet solved. New laws were passed last year to try to accelerate detection and repairs.
The regular Newton Tree Conservancy spring planting will be coming up on April 25, and we’re actually scheduled to get a few trees right here on Chestnut St.
Well, maybe…
It’s good practice to take gas readings along the berm before planting because we have had such problems with leaks in the past. In our neighborhood, there’s a long, well-known history of gas leaks and corresponding tree death along Woodward St.
Julia Malakie has been working with a private expert to take readings wherever new trees will be going in, and ironically enough – our corner seems to win the grand prize this time. High readings along Woodward St right at Chestnut St, and a reading that the expert suggested might in fact be actively dangerous.
National Grid came by immediately, took their own readings both inside and outside, as well as at the manhole cover, storm drain, and in the berm. They confirmed the presence of gas, but at lower concentrations.
The lesson – to the extent that there is one beyond keep your nose on alert for gas – is that just about all maintenance our infrastructure continues to be behind the curve, and it’s impacting our ability to restore what is so important to what we love about our City (in this case, the street trees which make our City a wonderful place through which to stroll.
Anyhow, go ahead, enjoy a lovely stroll around the neighborhood, and perhaps keep your nose on alert as you do so.
Addendum from Julia Malakie: Here’s a link to National Grid’s filing with the DPU, which thanks to the new legislation, now includes lists of their of outstanding gas leaks, and leaks repaired since last filing.
I should point out that the gas leak problem is actually endemic, ongoing, and acute throughout the City. Julia Malakie will be able to point you in the direction of past audits of leaks if you’re interested.
That link I posted above is National Grid’s annual Service Quality Report, which all the distribution companies have to file with DPU. I’m actually impressed that they put the statewide gas leaks list in the public filing, because they had previously seemed very resistant to releasing the info.
However, it is in the least usable format possible, listed in order of “Leak Number” which appears to be in the order of date reported, going back decades. It’s sort of in chronological order, but not exactly, I don’t know why, but possibly when an old leak recurs and is re-reported, it keeps its original number. But that’s just a guess.
Everyone from the City of Newton, other cities and towns, HEET and Clean Water Action, have asked for the leak lists in Excel form so we can sort by city, street, etc., but in the meantime we have somewhat been able to extract the information from the PDF. It’s still a work in process. But you can search the PDF for your street. But if it’s something like “Chestnut St” it’s liable to pop up in a lot of other towns as well.
To navigate this report: go to Section 5, attachments 1 and 2. Attachment 1 appears to be all leaks. Attachment 2 appears to be leaks they’ve repaired, or think they’ve repaired. I presume “Class Current” in attachment 2 means the leak grade before repair work, because they could not be leaving all those Class 1 leaks unrepaired.
Julia,
The above gas co records appear to record major construction accidents , dig safe violations, complaints etc.
Where did I see, a 2-3 years ago, records of testings for leaks, and the catagorization of same on various city of Newton Streets?
The Massachusetts Sierra Club prepared a gas consumer cost protection bill before the legislature(HB2870). Go to https://malegislature.gov/Bills/188/House/H2870 to see the bill and its 51 co-petitioners. The principal petitioners are Representative Lori Ehrlich and Senator Jamie Eldridge.
It is called “An Act relative to protecting consumers of gas and electricity from paying for leaked and unaccounted for gas” and protects ratepayers and customers who buy and consume gas and electricity from paying for unaccounted-for-gas lost through leaks and otherwise by precluding the regulated Providers from including in the rate base the cost of unaccounted-for-gas and the cost of reducing or remedying those losses.
The City of Cambridge has passed policy resolution O-44 supporting it (at http://www2.cambridgema.gov/cityClerk/policyOrder.cfm?item_id=48251) and other cities and towns are being asked to do the same.
Ed Woll