Brookline Select Board to Draft Letter Opposing Gas Pipeline Through Town

PEPPERELL — July 7, 2014 — Brookline, N.H. Select Board votes to oppose gas pipeline after packed public meeting. The board unanimously agreed July 7 to draft a letter opposing any route of the proposed Northeast Energy Direct lateral pipeline through the town and to hold a community informational session within two weeks, following a two-hour presentation by Beaverbrook Association President Drew Kellner outlining three alternate corridors to the original 12.2-mile proposed alignment from Pepperell, Mass., north to Liberty Utilities facilities in Merrimack, N.H. Kellner, whose organization is legally bound to protect conservation easements on its Hollis land from the project's developer, Tennessee Gas Pipeline — a Kinder Morgan subsidiary — told the board that Kinder Morgan expected to pre-file with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in September or October 2014, and that FERC approves more than 90 percent of projects after filing. The alternate routes range from 11.4 miles along Route 122 through Hollis, affecting an estimated 23 parcels, to 15.8 miles through Brookline along Route 13, affecting an estimated 377 parcels. Paula Terasi of the Nashoba Conservation Trust told the board a regional coalition already spans the route from Richmond, Mass., to Dracut, and that roughly 67 percent of Massachusetts landowners along the route had refused survey access.