Baker pressured to block pipeline surveys in state parks
- By Christian M. Wade Statehouse Reporter
BOSTON — Opponents of a gas pipeline are pressuring Gov. Charlie Baker to block a Texas-based energy company from conducting pre-construction surveys in state parkland.
Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company LLC, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, wants access to environmentally sensitive state lands — including a portion of Harold Parker State Forest in Andover, North Andover, North Reading and Middleton — for land surveys as well as environmental and archaeological studies. The surveys are required as part of a federal review of the project.
The pipeline will affect more than 100 state-protected conservation parcels along a proposed route, which runs through the Merrimack Valley and North Shore, in addition to hundreds of private parcels in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Environmentalists are urging Baker not to cave into the company's demands.
"We don't want the pipeline, and we certainly don't want them trampling over state parklands," said Jack Clarke, director of public policy and government relations for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, which has repeatedly denied the company's requests for access to its wildlife refuges in Ashburnham, Plainfield and Lenox to conduct surveys for the project.
"This project would uproot important habitat for wildlife and vegetation that has been preserved in perpetuity," he said.
Speculation has mounted that the Baker administration has already granted permission for some of the survey work.
While federal law limits a state's ability to block pipeline projects, the state Constitution requires a vote by two-thirds of the Legislature to allow private companies to build on state-protected conservation land.
Katie Gronendyke, spokeswoman for the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said "no determination has been made" to allow access to Kinder Morgan or its subsidiaries to state-owned land for field surveys.
The proposal has met with fierce opposition from hundreds of private landowners in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, many of whom have denied workers access for surveys and other testing ahead of the $5 billion, 421-mile pipeline project.
Kinder Morgan has asked the state Department of Public Utilities to intervene by forcing 450 homeowners along the pipeline route to open up their land. The company has vowed to take homeowners to court under eminent domain proceedings if it doesn't get approval.
The surveys, which are required to get federal permits, include civil and archaeological surveys, soil tests and environmental studies of the project's impact on endangered species and wetland habitats, such as vernal pools.
Richard Wheatley, a spokesman for Tennessee Gas Company, said the company has modified the pipeline route to follow more existing gas lines and utility rights-of-way to minimize the impact on landowners, parks, wetlands and protected lands.
"The proposed path has been adjusted over 200 times to avoid environmentally sensitive areas, reduce disruption during construction, and address individual property owners' special requests," he said.
He declined to say if the company was conducting any pre-construction surveys on state-owned parkland.
New Hampshire officials granted permission last year to Tennessee Gas Company to conduct pre-construction surveys on state parkland, according to a letter from Bill Carpenter, director of the state's Land Management Bureau.
The company was seeking access to Rhododendron State Park, Russell State Forest and Russell Abbott State Forest, as well as several rail trails in southern New Hampshire.
Though the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has final say over the pipeline, it is required to weigh input from state and local officials, as well as property owners. That includes an environmental review using data from surveys and studies.
Opponents say the surveys, which can involve turning soil and clear-cutting vegetation, are disruptive to wildlife and habitats.
"The surveys they're talking about aren't just going out there and looking around; some of them involve bringing trucks and doing drilling," said Katy Eiseman, who heads the Massachusetts Pipeline Awareness Network, which opposes the project.
"They would be bush-whacking their way out there, which is totally inappropriate on conservation land," she said.
She said the issue of whether the pre-construction work should require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature is an "open question," but her group has sent dozens of emails to Baker and senior officials calling on them to block the surveys.
"Given the lack of transparency with our state government, it's not clear what the Baker administration is doing," she said.
Glen Aspeslagh, a member of the nonprofit Friends of Harold Parker State Forest, said he has heard about workers doing pre-construction surveys for one of the lateral pipelines that would run through a remote section of the 3,000-acre state park along the Andover-Tewksbury line.
"They've absolutely been out there," he said. "This is an extremely sensitive area, with wetlands, streams and vernal pools."
Kinder Morgan and its subsidiary want to pump gas from the Marcellus shale region of Pennsylvania across Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Its pipeline would connect with other proposed and existing lines running through Haverhill, Methuen and Andover. Smaller, lateral lines are proposed to run through Peabody, Danvers and Lynnfield.
Rancor over the pipeline is part of a broader debate over energy policies. Project supporters say the electricity market is strained, in part, by a lack of transmission lines to bring gas to power plants that are shifting away from coal.
Lack of capacity has led to higher energy bills in New England even as the wholesale price of gas has declined, they say.
But Attorney General Maura Healey released a report in November suggesting that the demand for gas is overstated.
The Baker administration wants to pursue hydropower, solar, wind and other renewable energy sources to meet the state's energy demands, and to meet ambitious goals to cut the state's carbon emissions nearly in half over the next decade.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for CNHI's newspapers and websites. Reach him at cwade@cnhi.com
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