Sudbury Town Meeting To Vote On Funding Eversource Legal Fight

SUDBURY, MA — Town Meeting in May will decide to continue funding a legal fight against an Eversource project that would bury transmission lines under a defunct railway corridor — a project that would also lead to the construction of a new section of the Central Massachusetts Rail Trail.

If passed, the article would allow the transfer of about $150,000 "for the purpose of legal fees, hiring of experts, and all costs incidental and related to litigation of the Eversource/Hudson reliability project; or act on anything relative thereto."

Eversource wants to build an underground transmission line from a substation in Sudbury to a Hudson Light & Power Department substation. The line would run through Sudbury along the 4.3-mile former MBTA corridor. Simultaneously, the Department of Conservation and Recreation would pave the corridor for as part of the Central Massachusetts Rail Trail.

The town and the private group Protect Sudbury Inc. have been fighting the project for years, but recently lost two key battles. Protect Sudbury believes the transmission lines would jeopardize property values and the environment along the rail corridor.

In late 2019, the state Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) ruled that Eversource could proceed with the project. The town and Protect Sudbury in August filed a new suit against the EFSB seeking to overturn that decision. And in September, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the MBTA could transfer the rail corridor to Eversource without a vote of the Legislature.

In Sudbury, the corridor runs from behind the Herb Chambers dealerships northwest toward the Hopbrook parcel.

The 2021 spring Sudbury Town Meeting kicks off on May 23 at Lincoln-Sudbury High School.