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Date: 12/14/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Eversource is planning ahead for natural gas main installations next year on Monterey Drive and in the Ashley Street area.
At a Town Council public hearing on Dec. 4, however, one Dorwin Drive neighbor questioned whether the utility company is planning far enough ahead — to the proposed abandonment of fossil fuel heating in the coming decades.
“There’s no serious debate that we have to do everything we can as fast as we can to rapidly draw down fossil fuel emissions from burning things like natural gas,” said Andrew Milroy. “I’m asking that the council take notice of what’s going on in the world, of the desperate need to try to, at every hand, reduce our carbon emissions, and factor that into your votes.”
The council voted 6-0, with members Michael Eger, Daniel O’Brien and Jaime Smith absent, to approve the Eversource work. The new gas lines in the Ashley Street area replace aging, leaky lead pipes on streets that already have natural gas service. An Eversource representative said the new medium-pressure lines are safer than the current low-pressure service.
Answering other neighbors’ questions, the Eversource representative said the utility company will repave the roads and restore any lawns it disturbs during the work. Some customers may receive new outdoor gas meters. While the lines are being reconnected at each individual home, homeowners may lose their gas service for half a day, but since the work will be done during warm weather, many will not notice the interruption.
Councilors and the Eversource representative did not respond to Milroy, who called the proposal and vote “government as usual, business as usual.”
“Unless government begins to do government as unusual, unless you begin to take a step back, maybe even consider a moratorium on this action,” the environment will suffer long-term effects, Milroy said. “Consider that while the impacts of this project are likely to be low, they will be here a long time. All the houses you see that are heating with gas, cooking with gas, heating their water with gas, they’re going to be here for a while.”
The state government has set a goal of “net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Part of reaching that goal is phasing out natural gas for cooking and home heating, and encouraging homeowners to use electric appliances.
The Ashley Street cluster of gas main replacements also includes lines on Dorwin Drive, Glenview Drive, Harwich Road and Terry Drive. The Monterey Drive line is new service in a commercial zone off Riverdale Street.