NStar's Right of Ways Impact Municipal Well Zones in Every Cape Town source: GreenCAPE
New year’s resolution: Stop picking on poor little NStar. Only a joke, of course, but you can get to thinking that way.
In recent months, there has been widespread griping about the power company’s performance in two big storms. Maybe, people have begun to think, the problem of trees falling on wires causing great inconvenience to customers has something to do with the lack of pre-emptive pruning. If NStar can’t put the wires underground, at least they should make the above-ground wires less vulnerable to the forests they run through.
But another big story has been widespread lamentation about NStar’s excessive, inconsiderate pruning around wires, ruining homeowners’ privacy and their view of beloved trees.
There may be some who are shaking their heads in sympathy for the beleaguered public utility: damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
Then there’s the ongoing issue of spraying herbicides under their power lines. Seems like everyone who has an opinion on this is on NStar’s case. Letters to the editor and signs draped over bridges implore: Please, NStar, don’t spray, don’t poison our ground water.
The outcry has been generally against the wrongheadedness of deliberately dumping chemicals into sandy soil not many feet beneath the surface of which is the underground lake which is the water supply for most of us. Not when there are perfectly reasonable, noninvasive alternatives, such as pruning the power lines right-of-way, the method they used for decades before the bright idea of poisoning inexplicably jumped into their heads. The anti-spraying sentiment has resulted in a moratorium, but it expired Jan. 1 with no reassurances that the company’s heart has softened on the issue.
One would think this to be a no-brainer for the company, a simple matter of maintaining cordial relations with those they purport to serve. But wait, maybe not so simple. There was an article in the paper back in September about the National Seashore planning to do its own spraying, of our ponds, no less, “to poison invasive reeds.” I’ve always thought that limpid above-ground water had an intimate connection with our underground water supply.
How can this be? How can we go on picking on NStar for poisoning the water beneath us when the National Seashore is doing it? Don’t we have a serious credibility and consistency problem here? Do we need to get the Seashore superintendent to relent on his spraying plan or give up the fight against NStar’s?
Lest we lose our way in this moral thicket, and start feeling sorry for the utility, let us consider: There’s really no problem. Not when we remember that both entities, the utility and the national park, are public. Trace back the line of authority for both and it ends with “We the People.” We decided that we would authorize one entity to handle the creation and delivery of electricity and another to manage our public open space for preservation and recreation.
So it should be part of NStar’s job description to prune to make it less likely that we the people will lose power. But that doesn’t give them carte blanche to do it any way they want. They are a public utility and as such should always do what they do in cooperation with those most affected. Their job, truly, is to please us, the public in “public utility.” The customer is always right.
When it comes to the spraying: it’s not really a contradiction if the people both want their national park to spray and their public utility not to spray when old- fashioned cutting and pruning will do. If we who use the ponds and drink the water decide that a weed-free pond — or even, however foolishly in the view of many, a bright green lawn — is more important than a poison-free aquifer (actually, it’s hard to imagine we do), that doesn’t excuse NStar. It’s not NStar’s call to make. Two wrongs don’t make a right, one’s mother always said.
Brent Harold of Wellfleet, a former English professor, blogs at brentharoldjournal.com. Email him at kinnacum@gmail.com.
Protected from high bills, but exposed to poisons?
On Feb. 15 Gov. Deval Patrick stated that NStar has become “a bigger participant in the commonwealth’s green-energy generation revolution under way right now.”
How green can our utility company be as long as it plans to abuse the environment with the use of five herbicides, plus surfactant, to control vegetation under the power lines of Cape Cod? What about the implications of polluting a sole-source aquifer with these endocrine-disruptive chemicals?
Cape Cod activists had hoped Gov. Patrick would include a provision in the deal that would prevent NStar’s horrific plan. Our homes sit above a sole-source aquifer. We drink well water. Emerging science indicates endocrine-disruptive chemicals can affect humans at lower doses than earlier thought.
Sen. John Kerry is currently sponsoring a Senate bill to protect citizens from endocrine-disruptive chemicals. What’s up with the governor? His office provides protection from higher electricity bills, but chooses not to protect us from toxic-chemical pollution?
Alexandra Grabbe
Wellfleet
Copyright © Cape Cod Media Group, a division of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MARCH 2011. NSTAR announces a 2011 spraying moratorium on Wednesday March 2 by sending press releases to local Cape Cod papers. Friday March 4,shareholder vote approves merger of NSTAR and Northeast Utilities.
- Under pressure, NStar extends spraying moratorium until 2012
By Rich Eldred, Cape Codder
Posted Mar 04, 2011 @ 11:35 AM
BREWSTER —
NStar no spray? No way!But it’s true.NStar, the Cape’s electric provider, has voluntarily extended its voluntary moratorium of last year through the end of 2011, so there will be no spraying of herbicides beneath the power line right-of-ways on Cape Cod until at least next spring. The trees have to leaf out for the herbicide to be effective.
“It’s good. It’s bad,” said Sue Phelen, director of GreenCape, a spraying opponent. “Cape citizens have been working on this for about two years and have provided the Cape Cod Commission and county with evidence that would easily justify the elimination of herbicides as a right of way practice. But we haven’t moved forward. We’re in the same place we were last year at this time.”
Some things have moved forward, including the introduction of a bill in the house of representatives this week to give local towns a voice in whether or not NStar can spray under the power lines in those municipalities.
“It’s definitely good,” reflected Jared Collins, founder of Cape Cod for a Truly Green NStar. “We have to make sure we support the legislation proposed by Sarah Peake and Cleon Turner. They just submitted it and it gives towns a say over what happens within their jurisdiction and the ability to tell NStar ‘no.’ Up to this point the towns haven’t had any say because of preemption laws.”
Collins believes the filing of the bill sparked the renewed moratorium.
“NStar wasn’t making any indication of having a reversal. I think it has everything to do with the legislation,” he said.
The bill was actually filed a week-and-a-half ago by the local state representatives, Turner of Dennis, with Peake as the co-petitioner, co-sponsored by Rep. Tim Madden of Nantucket and with support from several Cape reps.
“What it does is mirror language in a Maine statute that requires public utilities that have right-of-ways that intersect a town where the town leaders have made a decision to prohibit the use of herbicides on a right-of-way – the utility must negotiate with them in good faith,” explained representative Peake of Provincetown.
The Maine law dates from 1975. The utility could use alternative methods such as paying the town to maintain the right-of-way, mowing, grazing etc.
“It requires a conversation and negotiation and gives local control back to the towns,” Peake said. “For me what was so frustrating was there was little opportunity under Massachusetts law for a town or county to say no we want you to find non-chemical methods.”
This bill (House 3587) requires the utility to come up with a no-spray plan. If they and the town can’t agree on a practice the dispute will go to professional arbitration.
“Clearly, such negotiations and agreements will require municipalities to step up and undertake some part of the cost or some part of the physical labor to mechanically remove vegetation from the rights-of-way,” Turner said in a statement. “Cape towns and residents need to have much more serious discussions regarding eliminating the use of chemicals that have the potential of contaminating our drinking water.”
NStar has the right to utilize five herbicides to keep right-of-ways clear of trees; glyphosate (the ingredient in Round-Up), fosamine ammonium (Krenite S), metsulferon-methyl (Escort XP), imazapyr (Aresenal) and triclopyr (Garlon-4). The first four are foliar sprays the latter is a basal spray. Those chemicals are mixed with drift retardants and surfactants to make them stick. Last year they’d planned to use Aresenal, Krenite S and Escort XP.
When Eastham voted to ask for a one-year moratorium NStar honored it, and when other towns also requested a moratorium it was extended Cape wide.
‘I think we should have instituted a permanent moratorium on herbicide use, not just one year,” Phelen said. “There are alternative methods for dealing with weeds. I’m hoping that’s what’s going to happen because they (NStar) could really serve as a model for dealing with sole source aquifers.”
During the year of no spraying there will be time for a “comprehensive study to quantify and ultimately reduce herbicide and pesticide use by all users on Cape Cod,” NStar noted in a press release. They will not fund the study so as not to have undue influence over it.“To be clear, reductions don’t keep people safe,” Phelen said. “You have to have no herbicide use.”
She noted the Krenite is not approved for residential use and the power lines run through residential backyards.
“Now the real work begins,” Peake said. “We really have the opportunity to develop a best practices model that takes the use of herbicides and clear cutting edge to edge off the table.”
She has been meeting with state Sen. Dan Wolf, Turner and county commissioner Bill Doherty on what the planning process should be. She would like to see the use of a professional facilitator to push things forward, rather than something like the ad hoc committee that recently concluded in support of NStar’s vegetation management plan.
Copyright 2011 Sandwich Broadsider. Some rights reserved
Read more: Under pressure, NStar extends spraying moratorium until 2012 – - Sandwich Broadsider http://www.wickedlocal.com/sandwich/archive/x256213142/Under-pressure-NStar-extends-spraying-moratorium-until-2012#ixzz1FiFuqZKd
- FEBRUARY 2011. People are reacting to NSTAR’s determination to spray herbicides along its transmission line right-of-ways beginning this spring. (translation: right-of-ways: in their deeds, public and private landowners gave NSTAR (or Boston Edison or whatever the electric companies were before that) permission to place and maintain the lines. In most cases, easements were given BEFORE herbicides were ever used on this land, which does not belong to NSTAR.
- http://chezsven.blogspot.com/2011/02/fence-signs-attract-attention-on-route.html Signs go up in Wellfleet; Sarah Colvin interviews Laura Kelly and Jared Collins on WQRC, WOCN, WFCC, WKPE on the objections to NSTAR’s spraying plan.
- State Representative Cleon H. Turner, First Barnstable District, opinion published the the Cape Cod Times, February 16, 2011. http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110216/OPINION/102160335/-1/NEWSMAP
“…Though NStar insists that its plan is the most environmentally friendly approach to vegetation management, we must recognize that history has shown that today’s environmentally friendly chemicals have very often proven to be tomorrow’s health care disasters. While I appreciate the concern for wildlife and meadow type environments, we must remain true to the overarching public health issue, and first and foremost aim to protect the drinking water consumed by those on Cape Cod.We (and NStar) simply do not know what the long-term effect of the proposed herbicides are or what effect those chemicals will have on humans in the future. Taking the chance that the proposed chemicals will never be a problem is simply too much of a chance to take with Cape Cod’s sensitive environment.Though it may be legal and NStar may find that herbicide use is necessary to better manage the vegetation growth along the rights-of-way on Cape Cod, this is a prime opportunity for NStar to take the high road and to lead the way in reducing the use of herbicides on the Cape…” - Risk in Herbicide Spraying too Great, http://www.wickedlocal.com/falmouth/highlight/x2106603006/Erin-Boles-Cheryl-Osimo-Risk-in-Herbicide-Spraying-Too-Great
Erin Boles, Associate Executive Director, Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition and Cheryl Osimo, Cape Cod Resident, Director of Events and Communication, Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition in a letter published in the Sandwich Broadsider, Community Newspapers, Posted Feb 16, 2011:
“…As an increasing body of evidence links breast cancer with exposure to chemicals such as those found in common household products and services such as dry cleaning and lawn care, it would make sense for Cape Cod to take on a leadership role in setting the highest standards for chemical safety.Unfortunately, state and county authorities are instead giving NStar the nod to begin spraying of herbicides along the rights-of-way surrounding Cape Cod’s electrical lines. These herbicides contain chemicals called endocrine disrupting compounds that may be linked to breast cancer and other illnesses. Research tells us that exposure to even very small doses of certain endocrine disruptors can lead to very serious health impacts. Sadly, the ingredients in the approved herbicides have not been tested to be free of ingredients linked to breast cancer…”