By RICHIE DAVIS
Recorder Staff
SANDISFIELD — With a court order hold ready to expire after today, a gas pipeline project is raising concerns again in this Berkshire County town, as well as in Franklin County.
The May 8 Berkshire Superior Court decision by Judge John A. Agostini included a “stay” order until July 29 for Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.’s Connecticut Expansion Project through 2.3 miles of Otis State Forest, after which the company is expected to begin taking steps toward clearing trees.
In anticipation, members of Pipeline Awareness Network for the Northeast (PLAN-NE) and Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT) have notified the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that because of its members’ appeal of a water-quality certification for the project granted by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, federal and state laws prohibit “authorization of tree-cutting or other activity that will result in the discharge of dredged or fill material” into any water body.
The company would need a FERC “Notice to Proceed” with tree-cutting, said PLAN-NE’s president, Kathryn Eiseman. “Otis State Forest has become a flashpoint for a lot of people. We all want to make sure that the natural resources here are protected, and that DEP and Kinder Morgan follow the letter of the law.”
BEAT, like Eiseman, have expressed concerns about potential impacts on the wetlands and on Spectacle Pond, where Agostioni’s May 8 order would allow TGP access to the 4-mile pipeline looping route, including the section through the forest .
“I feel like the government is turning a blind eye to the environmental damage you can see from TGP’s existing pipelines here,” said Sandisfield resident Jean Atwater-Williams, who is part of the group appealing the certificate. “On our property alone, their poor maintenance practices have led to invasive species spreading across wetlands. Once they get the go-ahead, I think they do the minimum they can get away with.”
Surveyors for TGP were seen at Otis State Forest earlier this week, flagging the route and marking boundaries on land that is under protection of the Massachusetts Constitution’s Article 97 before access is given to the company.
“It appears they are pushing the limits,” said Eiseman, who contends that even though the court order is due to take effect after midnight passing control of the property over to TGP, “it doesn’t allow them to do anything” because the Department of Conservation and Recreation hasn’t yet issued a construction permit, the Environmental Protection Agency hasn’t issued a National Pollution Discharge Elimination Permit System permit and there are unmet conditions of the Sandisfield Conservation Commission.
TGP, which received FERC certification in March for its 13.42-mile-long Connecticut Expansion Project, has said it needs to begin work on the project as soon as possible to meet its contract obligation with customers to have its pipeline in service this November.
To prevent further delays, the company on Monday called on Berkshire Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini to order that as of 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the company “shall have immediate right of entry” on the affected right of way and temporary work space approved by FERC “under, upon, across and through the property” for all certificated purposes.
Franklin County residents
Even though the Berkshire County conservation property is miles from Franklin County, where a related TGP natural gas project had been proposed to run through eight towns on its route from New York State to Middlesex County but has been canceled, Franklin County residents have played a big role in opposing the project here, at a July 16 vigil, through support of PLAN-NE and by training for upcoming civil disobedience actions, say Eiseman and other project opponents.
“We’re still charged up from experiencing the threat and the horrendous effect the pipeline would have had here, so we feel sympathetic,” said Will Elwell of Ashfield, who oversaw construction of a Thoreau-inspired cabin along the pipeline route that he tried to have moved to Sandisfield. “It’s an attack on our heritage of old-growth trees and conservation land.”
Jim Cutler of Ashfield, a former board of PLAN-NE, explained, “Article 97 really is a core issue that has an impact on our future down the line.”
While the court decision, which cited federal preemption authority in usurping the Massachusetts Legislature’s exclusive authority to release Article 97-protected state conservation land, may not have formally set a legal precedent, Cutler said, “It’s very hard to know where the decision will judicial or political impact down the road. Pipelines are ubiquitous: if not here, there; if not now, tomorrow.”
Cate Woolner of Northfield, representing the Sugar Shack Alliance, which has trained more than 250 Franklin, Hampshire and Berkshire County residents in nonviolent protest, along with potential protesters from southern Vermont and New Hampshire, said, “The folks in Sandisfield and surrounding towns are facing the same kind of situation we were here. We’re not concerned not just about that one pipeline here but about fracking, about fossil fuel use, the fact that we have gas leaks all over the place that aren’t being plugged up.”
When opponents walked in March from Windsor to Northfield, “There were folks who showed up and walked with us from Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, eastern Massachusetts, and a number from out of state. We don’t want to be seen, or be, all about NIMBY (Not in My Backyard). And that’s why many of us also are showing up in Boston,” where Spectra’s Access Northeast gas pipeline project is under construction.
You can reach Richie Davis at: rdavis@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 269