Mothers Out Front Draw Attention To Waltham's 212 Gas Leaks

WALTHAM, MA — If you've been anywhere near Main and Rich streets you may have smelled it: It's one of more than 212 gas leaks across the city.

Mothers Out Front, a grassroots movement with a chapter in Waltham advocating for gas leak repairs across the city, tagged 160 leaks several years ago as part of an effort to draw attention to issues associated with leaked methane.

It paid off: Waltham was designated a Green City in 2018 and more recently the city council committed to hiring a Sustainability Manager (once the hiring freeze is over).

But now, the group is working to do more this year, and is gearing up for an awareness campaign just as the city council is up for election in November.

"In our campaign we plan to encourage all candidates to make repairing [Significant Environmental Impact leaks] a priority," said Deborah Wild of Waltham's Mothers Out Front chapter.

Of the leaks in town, 11 of them have been designated as having significant environmental impact (SEI) for the surrounding 2,000 square foot area, which is roughly about the size of a tennis court. The leak near Main and Rich streets, which was reported in 2018, is almost 8,000 square feet. According to HEET, a Cambridge nonprofit that has sought to reduce gas leaks, SEI's are required to be repaired in one to three years.

"Repairing these 11 SEI leaks can reduce Waltham’s methane emissions by 50 percent," Wild said.

Mothers Out Front want the leaks repaired, while National Grid is arguing the pipes should be replaced. But Wild and other advocates say that is not the way to go as the city - and the state is working to find more environmental friendly sources of energy.

"It doesn’t make sense to replace pipelines when we need to get off gas and move to clean energy such as geothermal, solar, wind," Wild said.

Plus, she said, the organization estimates replacing all the state's leaky pipelines would cost somewhere around $14 billion. Those costs would be felt on the consumer, Wild said.

In 2020, there were 212 gas leaks reported in town that were not repaired. An additional 122 were repaired, leaving the city with an estimated methane emissions of about 89 MT.

All of that methane can have detrimental effects on the environment, according to scientists. They contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, waste fossil fuel and cost consumers of that gas money.

At worst, they can lead to deadly explosions, a dozen people were hurt in a gas leak explosion in Dorchester in 2014.

More commonly, even smaller leaks can kill trees by suffocating them at their roots. Trees breathe oxygen through their roots. Gas in the soil from a leak displaces oxygen. The cities of Brookline, Hingham, Milton, Nahant and Saugus have all taken legal actions against National Grid more than $2 million in damage to public shade trees.