Citizens meet in Longmeadow at Eversource site visit on Tuesday, June 21.Bryant Miller

Among approximately 100 attendees of an Eversource pipeline site visit in Longmeadow on Tuesday was Massachusetts state Sen. Eric Lesser and several activist organizations who have opposed the construction for years now.

“I really just wanted to show my support to the opponents [of the pipeline] and to the residents in the area and to the activists who have been working so hard on on trying to shed light on the project,” said Lesser. “I also wanted to substantively hear the [Eversource] presentation and learn more about the plans.”

The in-person meeting on Tuesday was hosted by the Massachusetts Environmental Protecting Act Office (MEPA) to view existing site conditions at the Longmeadow Country Club maintenance facility at 14 Hazardville Road, which is the site proposed for a meter station facility associated with the pipeline project. Attendees also included Springfield School Committee member Maria Perez and advocates from Climate Action Now and Berkshire Environmental Action Team, said Michele Marantz, leader of the Longmeadow Pipeline Awareness Group.

The MEPA office has not yet responded to a request for comment about the meeting.

Priscilla Ress, the western Massachusetts spokeswoman for Eversource, was optimistic about the outcome of the site visit.

“[The] MEPA meeting was well attended and provided a good opportunity for community and interested persons to participate in the siting process as we continue working to update and strengthen the backbone of the gas system,” Ress said.

However, Lesser, who is running for Lieutenant Governor, and others weren’t as happy with the site visit.

“There certainly was a disconnect [between Eversource and attendees],” said Lesser. “They could always do a better job at answering people’s questions.”

Naia Tenerowicz, member of Springfield Climate Justice Coalition, said she was similarly frustrated by how Eversource was unable to answer attendees’ questions.

“People asked questions about things that Eversource did not have adequate answers or in some cases, any answers at all,” said Tenerowicz.

Tenerowicz said she and others were “shocked” to learn that an Eversource representative said he was unfamiliar with an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was when an attendee referenced it — reports that in recent years have raised alarms about humanity’s short window to act to reduce climate change.

“So not only their lack of adequate answers, but seemingly their lack of awareness about the climate aspects of this was very concerning to all of us,” Tenerowicz said.

In a response to a climate question, an Eversource representative cited work the company is doing both in wind and solar electricity, speaking about an offshore collaboration with green energy company Ørsted set to power 1 million homes.

Ress said that she disagrees with the relevancy of the specific report to Eversource’s presentation.

“As the IPCC puts out a myriad of reports — none of which influence the critical need of the Western Massachusetts Reliability Project — [for the Eversource representative] to say he was not ‘familiar’ with the ‘particular IPCC study’ the [attendee] was mentioning is not equivalent to saying he didn’t know what the IPCC or the IPCC report is as may have been suggested,” said Ress. “The project team is there and prepared to answer questions about the project that is currently being reviewed by MEPA — not regurgitate information from technical reports and Ph.D.-level analysis that are not directly related to the project that is being reviewed.”

For both Lesser and Tenerowicz, the environmental impact of the Eversource pipeline project is of major concern.

“Springfield is already targeted for a lot of polluting industries. It really feels like every year something new pops up, something else that would be damaging to Springfield’s environment and public health,” said Tenerowicz, who lives in Springfield. “[Springfield residents] are already dealing with so much. We do not need more pollution. We do not need something that will contribute to public health issues.”

Springfield has been identified as a community with high health risk factors. According to a report by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America in 2021, Springfield rated as the 12th most challenging community in the United States to live with asthma.

Tenerowicz said that during the site visit attendees were shown several mature trees that were going to be cut down to build a new new point-of-delivery (POD) station in Longmeadow — taking away natural resources that help clean the air.

“One of our youngest organizers — she is 15 — spoke about her lived experience of her brother having really severe asthma and that she lives in fear that he could die,” said Tenerowicz. “That really got to the heart of this issue, that this pipeline would put people’s lives at risk and make things harder for people who are already really struggling.”

Ress said that the pipeline is needed for safety and reliability.

“We have a single pipeline that is over 70 years old and it isn’t getting any younger, and that’s what’s delivering the gas to tens of thousands of customers and, as a priority, the company has proposed putting in a secondary pipeline,” Ress said. “It’s a backup; it’s a second source; it’s redundancy. It’s for safety and the reliable delivery of of gas.”

Lesser said that he disagrees with the need for a new pipeline construction route.

“I think obviously redundancy and backup power sources are important but I think it’s worth keeping in mind the current route and the current line has been in place for decades, and there hasn’t been a need or an issue with the current with the infrastructure that’s currently in place,” said Lesser. “The question is, why can’t redundancies be built over the existing line, rather than building entirely new locations and creating new disruptions? That really hasn’t been answered.”

At the site visit, Marantz and Tenerowicz said that they became worried about the Bliss Street Regulator Station in Springfield — a station to which both the old and new pipeline project would connect.

According to Marantz, the regulator station is being deemed as “the salvation to reliability if something happens to the Memorial Bridge line.”

However, if the Bliss Street Station was damaged, Tenerowicz said that all of Springfield could lose gas. Tenerowicz said she questions why the new pipeline has to be built if Eversource’s reasoning for it is to distribute power reliably.

Ress responded that plans for the station had not yet been finalized.

“The details related to the future technical design of the Bliss Street area will be evaluated and addressed as we continue working through this years-long regulatory process,” said Ress.

Tenerowicz said that the station already has unreliable aspects to it. She said that she is worried about the sparks that the railroad tracks nearby create, the fact that the station is near the Connecticut River which floods and the potential for car crashes into the station from the nearby roadway, among other concerns.

Eversource's Bliss Street Regulatory Station on the left, railroad tracks on the right.Michele Marantz

Lesser said that he is also worried about the danger of explosions from the proposed pipeline construction, like what happened in the Merrimack valley in September 2018.

At the time of the explosions, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts agreed to a plea deal where they were sentenced to pay $53 million.

Eversource was tasked with recovery and performing safety checks on the Columbia Gas pipelines and later bought Columbia Gas, according to Ress.

“We didn’t own the system at that time. Governor Baker and state leaders had requested that we come in to assist in the recovery and also because we have a stellar safety record,” said Ress. “We also looked at the projects and rated them in terms of safety and that single source pipeline, leaving in and serving tens of thousands of customers in Springfield. That was a statewide priority to address. That and get us a second source of energy. And that’s what this pipeline proposal is all about.”

Lesser said that he is in the process of submitting a formal letter to the Massachusetts Environmental Protecting Act Office in opposition to the construction of the project.

However, Lesser is aware that it is an uphill battle for the proposed pipeline construction to be denied.

“Part of the challenge we’ve had is that there’s there’s a sort of patchwork of different regulators. And a lot of the pipeline authority rests with the federal government which has been very unresponsive and also, frankly, has a habit of approving these projects almost automatically,” Lesser said.

Tenerowicz said that Springfield Climate Justice Coalition is continuing to do community outreach, work with politicians and create petitions to deliver to Eversource.

“We’re building up this pressure, this awareness, that we are hoping eventually it will just be too much trouble for Eversource to proceed with this project that we are hoping to get the pipeline cancelled,” said Tenerowicz.

Despite the challenges that remain in stopping the proposed Eversource pipeline project, Lesser remains optimistic of what is to come.

“I think we have to be optimistic — there’s no other option and there’s a lot of steps left,” said Lesser. ”Both communities — Springfield and Longmeadow — have really shown a united front. There’s a really incredible group of activists and advocates, including some very passionate young people that have really helped shape the debate and bring a lot of attention to this. So yes, I am optimistic.”

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