Action Item: Send an email to the DEP Commissioner

Action Item: EMAIL COMMISSIONER MARTIN SUUBERG OF MASSDEP

MassDEP is tasked with the responsibility of protecting our land, air, and water by working with state, local, and resident partners. Unfortunately, MassDEP seems to have taken a major detour from their important mission. Send an email to the Commissioner of MassDEP to express your concerns. You can access sample talking points here.

Email the Commissioner here: Martin.Suuberg@mass.gov

As you know, the Department of Environmental Protection--or the Department of Enabling Polluters as they are now known--has not been a friend to the people of the Fore River Basin or the South Shore. Over the past few decades they have allowed more and more polluting industries into the Basin and have failed in their mission to "work with federal, state, local and citizen partners for a cleaner environment." The most recent example of this failure was the issuance of an Air Quality Plan Approval (permit) for the proposed Enbridge compressor station.

After the DEP conducted scientifically insufficient air quality testing in which they were still able to prove that the Basin was over standards for toxins such as benzene and formaldehyde, they then accepted a deeply flawed Health Impact Assessment (HIA) on which to base their air quality permitting. Governor Baker and the DEP turned a deaf ear to the letters of the Mayors of the Town of Weymouth, the City of Quincy, and the Town of Braintree asking that the air quality permit not be given. They ignored the letter of community members who had worked on the HIA making this same request. And they ignored a letter signed by over fourteen local senators and representatives from as far south as Attleboro demanding that the permitting be stopped.

We think it's time to talk to DEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg and let him know how disappointed we are.

Can you send him an email?

Go here to get talking points and Commissioner Suuberg's email address. We believe it is important to the Commissioner that his department be viewed as helping the environment, not harming it. We think he needs to hear from the citizens that this is no longer the case.

Use our talking points or make up your own. Remember, it's not just about this most recent permit given by the DEP. The litany of ignoring the citizens and our environment stretches from West Roxbury to Sandisfield, from Agawam to Charlton. We are all in this together.

Let's help Commissioner Suuberg get the DEP back on track to truly serve the citizens of the Commonwealth and not the polluters like Enbridge.

Thank you for all that you do!