Pipeline Coalition Meets Monday Morning

By ADAM SWIFT (Patch Staff)

Officials from Tewksbury and other municipalities making up the Northeast Municipal Gas Pipeline Coalition will meet on Monday, Jan. 11 at 10 a.m. at the Lunenburg Public Library.

The proposed Kinder Morgan/Tennessee Gas Pipeline expansion project through a number of northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire communities, including Tewksbury, has not met with much positive feedback from residents and local officials.

Pipeline officials have stated the project will help meet the increased demands for natural gas distribution.

The pipeline coalition is made up of 14 communities in Massachusetts, including Tewksbury and Wilmington, and one in New Hampshire.

The Jan. 11 agenda includes a discussion of issuing a joint press release with the New Hampshire Municipal Pipeline Coalition regarding the health impacts of compressor stations proposed as a part of the project.

Also on the agenda is a discussion of supplemental information on the project released by Tennessee Gas Pipeline at the end of last year, the extension of the intervenor process until Jan. 15, and the lack of notification by Kinder Morgan of newly affected landowners.

In an email sent to local officials last year, Tennessee Gas Pipeline officials noted that they will be filing for a larger capacity for the pipeline than initially proposed. Officials state that “increased interest on the NED Supply portion of the project warrants a request to certificate 1.2 billion cubic feet per day of capacity, an increase from the 1 billion cubic feet per day as submitted in earlier pre-filing documents.”

However, officials noted the project “will incorporate several modifications to the route on both the mainline and several delivery laterals resulting from continued dialogue with local community stakeholders.”

State Attorney General Maura Healey has urged federal regulators to undertake a rigorous review of the impacts of the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline before allowing the project to move forward.