IS NATIONAL GRID DOING
By Mark Snyder
www.snyderssandwich.com
National Grid’s Sagamore Line Reinforcement Project is coming to
The Sandwich Board of
Selectmen unanimously voted on April 4, 2013 to “express its concerns,” which
consisted of mostly safety issues on the heavily populated road. 28 homes along
service road have a single driveway, and 69 homes only have a single street
exit, so any incident could trap residents in their homes or subdivisions.
In addition, the Board of
Selectmen were concerned with Spaulding Rehabilitation
Hospital of Cape Cod, a 60-bed acute care rehabilitation facility with
extensive outpatient services, and the
National
Grid sought and received approval in 2006 from the EFSB (Energy Facilities Siting Board) for the “reinforcement project”, which
includes the installation of higher capacity natural gas lines in three
separate project sections on
The
Selectmen had proposed alternate routes, such as Route 6, due to public safety
issues. That was rejected. Town Manager Bud Dunham told Snyder’s
EFSB
issued a decision approving the Notice of Project Change. National Grid has
begun putting pink flags around the trees they wish to cut down. They’ve also agreed to a re-planting plan.
The
town’s superintendent of the Sandwich Water District, Daniel Mahoney, had asked
that the pipeline be laid on the northern shoulder of the road, with at least
ten feet separation from the District’s existing water main. “This would help eliminate any prolonged
interruption to water service or fire protection caused by such undermining,”
Mahoney wrote in a letter to the Cape Cod Commission.
National Grid currently has two existing gas pipelines located on the southern
shoulder of Service Road. According to Mahoney, “These existing pipelines,
taken together with location of the new gas pipeline in close proximity to the
District’s transmission pipeline, would further impede the District from
providing maintenance, repairs, and future water service connections across
Service Road.”
Mahoney
also requested that a “strip of land along the north shoulder of Service Road,
the centerline which would be set approximately five feet off the paved service
and south of the Sandwich Hollows Golf Course, be reserved for future pipeline
expansion by the District.”
It
appears that the latest proposal by National Grid incorporated some of the
suggestions of the Town. But, is it
safe? That is the question.
Meanwhile,
neighbors aren’t happy with any of this. Nancy Crossman was the one who
brought it to my attention.
Crossman, a member of the
School Committee, but who is speaking only for herself, wrote, “There was a hearing with the EFSB at SHS in which many of
us spoke, but tentative approval was still given. This Thursday, the final
decision will be made (any guess as to the outcome?). My husband, Daryl, took
days off from work to go to
She adds, “A ‘public’
hearing was held (by invitation only to those that lived within 300' of Service
road) in October 2012. Residents Nancy and Curt Mann may have been the only
ones in attendance as MANY of the abutters said they never received
notification. It moved through the Cape Cod Commission who basically rubber
stamped the new route even though many of us (now aware) attended and gave
valid reasons for not allowing this route. We were cut off and not allowed to
respond when NGRID with their zillions of lawyers and reps, could go on ad nauseum about their wonderful project. We suggested that
the power hi-line was safer and they ignored us. The CCC gave approval with the
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EFSB DECISION
photo by mark snyder