The new gas pipeline compressor station was set to open this month, but now faces a full safety review.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff/File 2020
A controversial natural gas compressor station in Weymouth will not start pumping natural gas this week, as the operator had previously indicated, and the start date now depends on the resolution of a full safety review that is not expected until January.
Max Bergeron, a spokesman for Enbridge, told the Globe last week that the company was planning to put the compressor station into operation this week, shipping gas north to Maine and Canada. On Wednesday, however, Bergeron cited a federal agencyâs safety review and said the compressor wonât begin operations until the agency âhas lifted the remaining restrictions.â
In Weymouth, a brute lesson in power politics
A Globe investigation finds residents who fought a six-year battle with an energy giant over a controversial gas compressor never had much of a chance, with both the federal and state governments consistently ruling against them
By Mike Stanton Boston Globe Spotlight Fellow,Updated December 12, 2020, 1:58 p.m.
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As the new gas pipeline compressor station (in background) is set to start operating this week, citizen activist Alice Arena places an elf on a tree in Kings Cove Park in Weymouth.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
WEYMOUTH â Alice Arena was sitting at the kitchen table in her Colonial home at the end of September, composing yet another e-mail to government regulators, when her phone erupted with a flurry of calls and texts.