An unhealthy tree, adjacent to a gas main, struggles to survive.
August 13, 2024 (Boston, MA) – In the latest effort to prevent methane leaks that pose explosive dangers to communities, kill trees, and cost families and businesses money for gas that never reaches their home or office, Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) has announced plans to sue National Grid for federal and state violations.
“National Grid is playing a dangerous and expensive game of whack-a-mole with its ancient, leaky gas pipelines, and families and businesses are taking the hit,” said Heather Govern, Vice President of CLF’s Clean Air and Water Program. “These continuous gas leaks are not just costly, they jeopardize lives, destroy homes, and worsen urban heat by suffocating trees. Band-Aids on aging gas pipelines are not solutions. Our communities need a safer, cleaner approach now.”
A notice of intent to sue was sent on Tuesday to National Grid outlining the violations of federal and state laws and the potential for court-imposed fines of up to nearly $100,000 per day for the continued leaks.
A street survey by CLF showed National Grid pipelines leaking toxic levels of methane, which worsens climate change, kills trees, and creates explosion hazards in dense neighborhoods.
Methane levels from leaks were dangerously high in Chelsea and the Boston neighborhoods of Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roslindale, Roxbury, South End, and along the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Back Bay – and many of these neighborhoods are already exposed to high levels of pollution and have limited access to trees and green space.
CLF found more than 200 public shade trees dead or dying from methane poisoning from leaking gas pipelines. And the loss of public shade trees in urban neighborhoods creates more dangerous heat islands and makes air pollution worse as temperatures rise this summer.
CLF’s survey also found 15 locations where leaks are serious enough to pose threats of fire and explosion and alerted National Grid to the danger spots.
The pipeline system is aging with hundreds of new explosive-level leaks popping up every quarter, sometimes in the same location where repairs were previously made, according to National Grid’s own data. The company spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year to replace pipelines that continue to leak.
CLF’s notice letter calls for National Grid to implement a long-term solution to eliminate methane leaks and transition from dangerous natural gas. The company is currently involved in two residential projects in Massachusetts that will provide heating and cooling via geothermal heat pump technology.
The full notice letter can be found here.
CLF experts are available for further comment.
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