Brockton, MA – Bruce Martin’s crews have worked on catch basins in Whitman only to get an unexpected whiff of gas. The town has 125 unrepaired leaks, with the oldest going back to 1994 and Martin, Whitman’s highway superintendent, says the leaks have put a strain on town resources.
Whitman’s fire crews have repeatedly responded to the same areas in town where the leaks exist, after receiving calls from residents, Martin said Thursday.
“There’s several areas (of gas leaks) in town,” Martin said. “If the wind blows a certain way, you can smell the gas. Or sometimes if we’re working on a catch basin, we open one up and you can smell it.”Whitman is not alone.Across the state, there are 25,000 leaks in natural gas lines.
Officials estimate that 2,000 require repairs.In 2014, when legislation to fix the problem of gas leaks was enacted, leaks were classified by priority.
Grade 1: Potential to explode. Immediate repair required.
Grade 2: Less likely to explode, but likely to grow worse.Six months to fix.
Grade 3: Least dangerous. No repair required, but must be monitored.
In Brockton, there are 277 unrepaired gas leaks, according to an Eversource report filed with the Department of Public Utilities in March. The oldest one has been leaking since 1987.
In Rockland, there are 160. The oldest has leaked for 25 years. Whitman and Stoughton have 125 each.
Abington has 34, and Bridgewater has 33. Abington’s oldest leak dates back to 1999 and Bridgewater’s, 1996.On the ground level, natural gas, which is roughly 95 percent methane, creates thick, toxic ozone that leads to respiratory problems such as asthma, especially in children and the elderly, and strangles plant life around it.Roadside trees, often called “shade trees,” fall victim to gas leaks. They die slowly over time as they absorb the gas through channels designed for oxygen. The roots suffocate.
“If you have an area of trees die off sometimes, a lot of people attribute that to road salt,” Martin said. “They don’t really think of natural gas.”Gas companies call the leaks “lost and unaccounted for gas.”
It’s just figured into the rate formula. Roughly 2.7 percent of gas is lost every year, according to Nathan Phillips, a Boston University professor who, for years, has championed the issue of unrepaired and unreported leaks.”Leaks tend to migrate down a line,” Phillips said.
Once the company fixes a spot in the pipe, gas pressure will puncture another hole.On a climate level, the leaks alone make up an estimated 10 percent of Massachusetts’ greenhouse gas inventory.
That’s as much as all the factories in the state, said Audrey Schulman, a utilities consultant turned activist and president of Home Energy Efficiency Team “and it’s a lot easier to fix the leaks than stop the factories,” she said.
DYING SHADE
Several years ago, Brockton Department of Public Works Commissioner Larry Rowley saw a city tree wither and die of gas exposure.”The gas line did go right near the ball of the tree. It affected it,” Rowley said. “But other than that, I really haven’t seen anything similar lately.
“In the Greater Boston area, where several thousand leaks have gone unrepaired, roadside trees have been the subject of a host of lawsuits filed by the city against gas companies.
Most dead trees are removed before the cause of death is examined, said Phillips. Dead trees along the side of the road are a liability and a safety hazard.
Bob Ackley, a former gas company worker turned leak activist, has been documenting tree deaths for years.
LEGAL PATCHWORK
It was Ackley who first approached Lori Ehrlich, a state representative based in Marblehead, with some ideas for gas leak legislation.
In the 2014 session, Ehrlich filed the bill that would eventually lead gas companies to make their leak reports public, and give them more incentive to carry out repairs.
She’s sponsoring two more bills this legislative session: one that would require gas companies to fix all gas leaks under a road before it’s repaved.
“It’s like a surgeon with a patient on the table, going in to pick out a gall bladder, seeing an artery gushing, and closing him up without fixing the artery,” she said of the way gas companies handle repaves now.
The other would prevent gas companies from figuring “lost and unaccounted for gas” into their rate formula. In other words, the company would have to foot that bill, not the customer.
This would create an added incentive for companies to fix their leaks, said Ehrlich.Sen. James Eldridge, D-Acton, filed both bills in the Senate. Each bill has 50 to 60 sponsors.”I’m hopeful we can do something,” said Ehrlich. The bills are in the early stages of the legislative process. They’ve yet to see a hearing.Environmental activists are hopeful, too. Joel Wool, of Clean Water, said the first bill made great progress, but it’s not enough. The two bills in session right now are crucial, he said.”It’s not a radical policy. It’s saying literally don’t rob your customers,” he said. “It’s not an abstracted policy, it’s how we are maintaining infrastructure. how we are taking care of our communities.
“Looking ahead, Eldridge has new legislation in mind. If town officials had the ability to fine gas companies for leaks left unfixed, he said, they’d probably get around to fixing them faster.
Meanwhile over in Whitman, Martin said crews will be making repairs to older leaks on Washington Street, before that road gets repaved.
He said older leaks are a concern because he doesn’t want to repave a road “and then have (gas company crews) have to come back and repair an old leak.”
“These are emergencies and they need to get repaired ahead of us,” Martin said. “I’d like to see them try and keep up with them. Just like anybody, a resident or town official, I’m sure you don’t want gas, whether small or large, leaking out.”