A victory for FRRACS and our allies!

Late on Friday afternoon, Adjudicator Jane Rothchild of the MA Department of Environmental Protection remanded the Ch. 91 Waterways permit back to the DEP for further review. Essentially agreeing with our complaint that the compressor station was NOT water dependent, Adjudicator Rothchild has thrown this important permit back to the DEP for reconsideration.

This is major news and a major victory for FRRACS, the city of Quincy, and the Towns of Braintree and Hingham. Without your continued efforts--our dear member--and the continued support of our many allies and our municipal partners, this never would have happened. We cannot possibly thank you enough. We also thank our amazing attorneys Michael Hayden and Lori Hayden for their dedication, their professionalism, and their tireless work.

We would also like to take a moment to thank Ms. Rothchild for her deep consideration of this issue. It has been a long road that we have travelled with the DEP on our appeals of the Wetlands permit, the Air Quality permit, and the Waterways permit. Many times, Ms. Rothchild asked the hard questions of the DEP and many times we felt that she was in our corner--only to be disappointed with yet another rubber stamp for Enbridge. While we understand the regulations and policies that have made the DEP an instrument for the benefit of the polluters for many decades, we could not help but think that this particular adjudicator understood that we had a case against the siting of this compressor. The regulations were very clear, and Enbridge did NOT ever "require" this location for this compressor. Thank you, Ms. Rothchild, for your decision. We will continue this fight, and your decision has given us the breath that we so needed at this time. (For those of you who missed the appeal on June 21, you can go here to watch the proceedings.)

We will be discussing our next steps with our attorney Michael Hayden, and we know that we can count on you to be as involved and as vigilant as ever. We will, of course, let FERC know about this new decision and will pursue every agency, including FERC, to force Enbridge to cease operations due to the lack of the required Ch. 91 Waterways permit.

We will add one final note regarding the status of the Town of Weymouth in this and all other legal actions against Enbridge. Contrary to a Facebook post by the mayor of Weymouth, the Town has no standing in the Ch. 91 appeal or any other legal actions still pending. The Town was not involved in this case before either Judge Leighton or the DEP. The mayor abandoned ALL legal actions against Enbridge as would pertain to the Atlantic Bridge project (i.e., this compressor) in October of 2020. In accepting a $10M payout to submit the Town to a gag order, he permanently ended all legal actions or complaints that the Town held against Enbridge. This left FRRACS and our partners in Quincy, Braintree, and Hingham to continue the proceedings without Weymouth's legal and financial assistance, as had been the case since Mayor Kay had instructed all Town departments to object to this compressor before FERC in 2015 and had hired outside legal counsel to pursue complaints against Enbridge. Any action on the part of the Town at this time would constitute a breach of contract. And we are pretty sure Enbridge would want the money back--money that the mayor has already spent or promised to different areas and projects in the Town.

The true heroes of this victory are all of you. You who have not wavered or given up in the face of incredible odds. You who have held signs, made phone calls, written letters, donated your hard earned dollars, attended endless meetings and appeals, and remained in community with one another for seven and a half years. We refuse to cede credit for this victory to someone who gave up, took some cash, and turned away.

Let's take this moment to consider the work we have done together and the work yet to come to save our communities and to save the planet. It's been a hard and amazing journey, and we are grateful to have walked it with all of you.

We hope to see you at our next meeting on Tuesday, August 9th, and we hope to have more information at that time.

Until then, thank you for all that you do!