Selectmen want more pipeline information
Natural gas line proposed in town
MILFORD – Selectmen have many unanswered questions regarding a report sent by Spectra Energy Partners on a proposed natural gas pipeline that would cut through town.
“This is more high level marketing than it is hard data,” said Selectman Bill Buckley of the 17-page report.
The maps don’t clearly show where in town the pipeline would run, he said, and he has lingering concerns over the environmental and safety impact the line could bring.
He asked for more information specifically on the company’s safety and environmental impact and how far along in the permitting process the project is.
He also said he wanted to know what control local authority has, given the fact the permitting process is carried out by the federal government.
The pipeline would extend west from Milford to West Boylston and east to Taunton, cutting through Upton, Franklin, Bellingham, Medway and many other towns along the way. There are a total of 48 miles of new pipeline, and the pipeline is part of an overarching project called Access Northeast, backed by Spectra, National Grid, and Eversource Energy. It’s billed as a way to greatly increase the flow of natural gas to area power plants, reducing electricity rates as soon as 2018.
According to the report, the pipeline would run along existing “energy corridors” in town that carry National Grid electric lines.
The Access Northeast project has been holding open house meetings for property neighbors. There’s one scheduled for Milford landowners on Sept. 14, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the DoubleTree Inn, according to Town Administrator Rick Villani.
One such landowner, Ted Grevers, who lives on Geneseo Circle, said he’d already been contacted by Spectra officials who want to survey his land.
Given that the pipeline needs a 600-foot buffer around it, Grevers said he’s concerned it may cut into the woods on the back end of his property.
"For me that's a problem because that's my woods,” he said.
Grevers isn’t the only one worried about the proposed project.
A group of residents have formed the Access Northeast Pipelin Opposition Group, an offshoot of the environmental activist group Massachusetts 350, to combat the project.
Their second meeting, open to all interested, is tonight at 7 p.m. in the First Universalist Society in Franklin.
Bill Shaner can be reached at 508-634-7582 or at wshaner@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Bshaner_MDN.