BACT Hearing with MassDEP

The two-day BACT appeal with MassDEP and Algonquin (Enbridge) concluded today. This is the appeal that the Town of Weymouth just dropped on October 30th--much to the surprise of their municipal partners and FRRACS.

What is the BACT appeal about? Back in June, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Enbridge’s air quality permit based on one thing--that Enbridge and the DEP did not do the full BACT (Best Available Control Technology) analysis as required. In this case, they should have explored the use of an electric motor drive (EMD) as opposed to a gas fired turbine. Their permit was reinstated later in the summer by the 1st Circuit. Although the 1st Circuit changed course, Enbridge (Algonquin) still had to go back and explain themselves to the DEP, and the DEP simply rubber stamped their new BACT explanation. We filed an appeal of DEP’s decision to approve their explanation. This week’s hearing focused specifically on this narrow issue. Since the Town of Weymouth dropped out of the appeal at the end of October, Braintree and Quincy were left to scramble and ultimately joined on to our appeal.

We had one expert witness who was cross-examined, Ranajit Sahu, Ph.D. Dr. Sahu has over 30 years experience in the fields of environmental, chemical, and mechanical engineering. Our attorney cross-examined multiple witness from DEP and Enbridge. Although we feel confident about our argument, we know that we cannot rely on MassDEP often rules in favor of project proponents.

We are not certain when a final decision will be made by the presiding officer, Jane Rothchild. We will update you as soon as we hear.

Unfortunately, MassDEP has made the video recordings of the hearing private, so we cannot share a link to them.