Action Alert: Make Quick Calls Regarding the Weymouth Compressor Station

Posted on October 7, 2019 by Brita Lundberg

A broad spectrum of concerned environmental and health groups have been working to get the message out about the extreme human health and safety risks posed by a natural gas compressor station that Spectra Energy plans to build in Weymouth. Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility has issued three comprehensive reports. This compressor station will be sited in a densely populated area that has levels of air pollution that already exceed regulatory standards; the site is heavily contaminated with arsenic that would be dispersed during construction; evacuation in the event of an explosion would be impossible; and the methane emissions would prevent Massachusetts from complying with its greenhouse gas reduction mandates under the Global Warming Solutions Act. 

This is happening right in our backyard. Governor Baker is allowing this to proceed, and the final permits may be issued this week.

Last week, Green Newton friend and colleague Professor Nathan Philips of the Boston University Department of Earth and the Environment was arrested while protesting this compressor station at the Department of Environmental Protection in downtown Boston. It is actually this bad.

Please do the following within the next 48 hours:

  1. Call Gary Moran, Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection 617-292-5775. Tell him that you are a concerned resident of the Commonwealth. Tell him that the placement of the compressor station is a threat to human health, and you want the project to be stopped.
  1. Call Gerard Martin, Southeast Regional Office of the Massachusetts DEP 508-946-2700 x42799. Tell him that you are a concerned resident of the Commonwealth. Tell him that the soil at the site is heavily contaminated with arsenic and other heavy metals, and that you want him to not allow construction at the site.
  1. Add your name to our letter from GB-PSR to Governor Baker.
  1. Mark your calendar for Friday, November 1 at noon for a ‘teach-in’ at the statehouse, led by Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, on this topic.
  1. Share this message widely with any interested colleagues you may have.

 

Thank you from Green Newton!

(This message was authored by Brita Lundberg, MD.)