Sec. Beaton's Update on the Health Impact Assessment

This past July Governor Baker sent a letter to Mayor Hedlund acknowledging the community's concerns about the proposed compressor station. In the letter he said that he was "directing the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Public Health to jointly prepare a public health impacts assessment." Up until now, his office has remained silent on this impending Health Impact Assessment (HIA). Members of the community, as well as elected officials, have followed up with Gov. Baker, MassDEP, and DPH multiple times to seek more information about the HIA. Specifically, we'd like to know what methodolgy they plan to use, when they intend to start (or when they did start), and when they plan to hold public info sessions, so that the community can provide input. We want the Assessment to be done in the open and with full transparency. 

Senator O'Connor and other reps sent a letter in October to Governor Baker to inquire about the status of the HIA. Secretary Beacon sent a response to Sen. O'Connor today.  While this is good news, we cannot let up as we have been kept in the dark since July. 

You can read his statement here.