Dear Senator Warren, Senator Markey, Governor Baker, and the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,

We the undersigned citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ask that our elected representatives fulfill their commitment to protect and represent us by opposing the installation of any new Spectra Energy or Kinder Morgan gas pipelines that are proposed to cross through drinking water supplies, protected lands or private property in the Commonwealth. The impacts  to  private property, backyards, water supplies, conservation lands, floodplains, wetlands, waterways, parks and land trusts are unacceptable.  

These pipelines will: 

 -Travel through back yards in densely developed neighborhoods, 

- Travel through municipal water supplies. In Wilmington it will be within feet of a Public Water Supply Well.

- Forever change  conservation land, Article 97 Land (Land protected under the Constitution of the Commonwealth ) , and Land Trusts that have taken decades to protect for future generations.  

- Travel through wetlands, rivers and floodplains severely altering their natural function and integrity forever.

 These expansions are:

-Designed too big to serve foreseeable needs without enormous increase in exports, which is the real agenda. http://marcellusdrilling.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/CANADA-LNG-EAST.jpg

_  Disingenuously  projecting a  “need” in our region  hiding behind a  domestic agenda to “Keep the Lights On” with fear tactics and claims of  “Skyrocketing Energy Cost Crisis” while in reality attempting to “addict” us to more fracked gas and increasing exports.  

 What we want:

 - Find ways to fulfill future energy needs but not at the expense of our people, our quality of life and other resources. 

 - To NOT  be forced into an unsustainable market that negatively impacts and commits environmental crimes against other citizens for our conveniences.  

 - A reduction in the state's reliance on natural gas from fracking by implementing  policies that encourage a diversity of fuel sources, both renewable and conventional, to ensure that we are not at the mercy of a single fuel supplier.

 Accidents occur regularly on existing pipelines. There is a lack of monitoring, contamination of public and private water supplies, increase of  earth quakes associated with fracking, methane leaks, air quality concerns at Compressor Stations and bad management practices in areas where gas is extracted.  How will our right to clean air, clean water and the right to pursue happiness be preserved? 

 Therefore we ask that our elected officials stand with us and  help protect our health , safety  and  quality of life from these pipelines for profit.

Thank you for your attention to this incredibly important matter.

 

“public welfare outweighs the right to private gain, and that no man may poison the people for his private profit.” - Theodore Roosevelt

Above photo from an anti-fracking protest that blockaded traffic on the West Side Highway, N.Y.  to protest the Spectra Pipeline (http://en.paperblog.com/anti-fracking-activists-blockade-the-west-side-highway-in-nyc-to-protest-spectra-pipeline-705179/).