Press Release: Climate Protectors stop construction at compressor station

For Immediate Release: February 19, 2020

Contact: nocompressor@gmail.com

Climate protectors risk arrest during mass action to halt construction of the Weymouth compressor station

North Weymouth, MA – Early this morning, over 200 members of Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station (FRRACS) and allies gathered for a mass demonstration at Enbridge’s compressor station site to call on Baker and the DEP to immediately halt construction on the project. Multiple people were arrested for blocking the gate to the construction site., while two other people were arrested for locking to pieces of construction equipment on site. As a result of today’s action, construction was stopped and workers left the site.  Thirteen arrests were made in total. Court dates will be held on Thursday, February 20 and Wednesday, February 26 at 8:30AM at the Quincy District Court.

Enbridge, a Canadian corporation, has a long track record of violating state law and Indigenous sovereignty. The Atlantic Bridge project, with Weymouth at the center, would export fracked-gas to Europe by way of so-called Nova Scotia where a gas storage cavern would illegally violate Mi’kmaq treaty rights. 

“I chose to lock down today in solidarity with my Mi'kmaq people in Nova Scotia who are battling Alton Gas. Many don't know that the Weymouth Compressor Station IS the mouthpiece to the Alton Gas project and that Nova Scotia is a destination point for the brine release. The Shubenacadie River is still an active river, that's very much in use and not just by the people but also the wildlife species who inhabit this area. Gov. Baker has no rights or jurisdiction on unceded Mi'kmaq territories nor does he have the right to trample on international treaties and I'm here to expose him for doing exactly all of that all in the name of greed. My people are not for sale and neither is their land...this is our resistance,” says Kerry Labrador, whose Mi’kmaq family would be gravely impacted by the compressor project.

Community members have been organizing against Enbridge’s ill-conceived project for more than five years and have no plans of stopping. Enbridge intended to have their fracked-gas compressor in service by November 2017, but their plans were significantly delayed due to the steadfast efforts of concerned residents and public officials. 

Beyond concerns about the impacts of building this facility on a toxic waste dump and the additional air quality hazards in a community already plagued by industry, the Weymouth compressor would exacerbate climate change by opening a channel for fracked-gas exports. Many at the demonstration today voiced solidarity with the Wetsu’wet’en Indigenous people fighting another gas export pipeline slated to violate their lands.

“I have a responsibility, as someone who enjoys breathing fresh air and drinking clean water, to stand up so that people everywhere have access to the same life-sustaining rights. And having seen the devastating impacts of climate change firsthand, knowing that things will only get worse, I have a responsibility to stop rogue corporations on behalf of children and future generations. I pray that the nonviolent actions taking place across the world will bring about the necessary changes before it's too late,” says Kiki Clougherty, who risked arrest today.

Enbridge began their rogue construction of the compressor station in early December, after the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) granted rubber-stamped approval of their permits. MassDEP ignored important data and regulations while reviewing Enbridge’s applications, and instead relied on data from the project proponent. MassDEP failed to do their job of protecting people and the environment, which has forced community members to do their job for them.

Nick Bain, who also risked arrest today, states, “Our governments and laws have failed to protect our well-being, and are complicit in the destruction of our future - on scientific, rational, moral, ethical, or spiritual grounds, it is the duty of all principled people to now stand together and demand justice for our ecosystems, frontline communities, and our interdependent future.”

We will continue to fight for a better future; a future that does not include the Weymouth compressor station or further fracked-gas expansion.

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BACKGROUND:

Gov. Baker's failed stewardship has landed the Fore River Basin a toxic gas transmission compressor that no Massachusetts utility wants nor needs. Governor Baker can still take steps to immediately stop this process from moving forward. (Patriot Ledger) Baker, MassDEP, and MassEEA must pay attention the health and future of those they swore an oath to protect.

Residents of Weymouth, Quincy, Braintree, and Hingham (and allies throughout MA and New England) have been fighting the placement of a 7700 HP fracked gas transmission compressor station in North Weymouth for five years. The compressor station poses a major health, safety, environmental, and economic risk to the residents of the Fore River Basin in Weymouth, Quincy, Braintree, and to all of the South Shore. Recently, Eversource and National Grid have said they do not need a compressor because they can fulfill gas needs for the next fourteen years (WBUR)

The site has been an industrial waste dump site for decades. The now-defunct Edgar Coal Fired Plant dumped coal ash, furnace bricks, and coal clinkers into a small spit of land for almost 50 years. This repeated dumping of industrial waste eventually created a larger triangle of land known as the North Parcel. In more recent years, an eleven-million-gallon diesel oil tank and a six-million-gallon tank of diesel oil additive sat on the site, leaking for over a decade into the ground beneath. The DEP has no record of who took the oil or where it was transported when the tanks were removed in the early nineteen nineties. Millions of gallons of the oil still remain, approximately ten feet below the surface of the North Parcel. (WBUR) Enbridge is digging it all up, exposing workers and residents to these toxins.(GBPSR)

The Fore River Basin is already overburdened by pollution: ten pollution-spewing industrial facilities have been dumped here over decades, including tank farms, power plants, and a sewage treatment facility. The residents of the Basin have suffered enough due to the loss of loved ones. (FRRACS) Multiple Environmental Justice areas have not even been considered by MassDEP. A recent ruling in VA tells us what we already know: Environmental Justice laws, regulations, and policies that are in place to protect already overburdened citizens matter! (Patriot Ledger)

Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station (FRRACS) | nocompressor.com