A PSA--What is Force Majeure? The Current Status of the Compressor

There has been a lot going on at the compressor station since the last accident that occurred on Tuesday, April 6. We thought it might be a good idea to do a PSA on what happened on that day and what Enbridge's response to the accident has been.

On April 6, the compressor station released 11,430 standard cubic feet (scf) of gas and 3 pounds of volatile organic compounds (toxins) because of a malfunction of the station. The MassDEP requires Enbridge to report any such release over 10K scf. Currently, Enbridge either does not know or will not release the cause of this third accident.

Because of this accident, Enbridge has told their customers that they are not sourcing or shipping any additional gas above and beyond the minimum contract amount--and, in fact, may not meet those contracts--until further notice. That's essentially what all of the gobbledygook in that attached document means. They are claiming "force majeure" in order to avoid any penalties for breach of contract from their customers.

But what is force majeure? One legal source defines it as "acts of God, war, terrorism, earthquakes, hurricanes, acts of government, explosions, fire, plagues or epidemics ." It generally is NOT declared for mechanical failures or human error. That certainly makes us curious as to exactly what the problem is.

According to a Tweet from WBUR's Miriam Wasser, Enbridge stated, "The Weymouth Compressor Station’s compressor unit is not currently operating at this time. We will return the Weymouth Compressor Station’s compressor unit to service once we have further verified its continued ability to safely and reliably operate." After three accidents in eight months, we highly question the ability of Enbridge to "safely" operate this station.

For daily information on what is happening on the Atlantic Bridge and at the Weymouth compressor station, go here.

We hope that our first responders at the Weymouth Police Department and the Weymouth Fire Department are keeping an eye on the situation. They need to be discerning in taking Enbridge at their word and watchful of the operations at the station. It is an unsafe location for a dangerous facility.

We hope this clears up any confusion as to whether or not the station is running. This is the one time we will take Enbridge at their word for telling us that operations have ceased for the moment. And why are we doing that? Because it must be killing them to admit it.