HADLEY — Activists gathered outside of Eversource’s Hadley facility on Oct. 18 to protest the company’s proposal to cut approximately 370 acres of trees around its transmission lines in Franklin and Hampshire counties, claiming the project is damaging to the environment and that it requires a full environmental impact report.
Eversource and state documents, however, show an environmental impact report is in the draft process. On Sept. 30, Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office analyst Jennifer Hughes determined that Eversource’s proposed project — in which the utility company requested a single environmental impact report, but not a waiver — will require the preparation of a full draft environmental impact report. The 127-page document, which includes many of the more than 280 public comments, can be viewed at bit.ly/3CP5rKr.
Asked if the company was seeking an exemption, Eversource spokesperson Priscilla Ress responded, “Absolutely not. “We are in the process of preparing an impact report and answering all of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office’s questions about our Transmission Right-of-Way Reliability Program.”
Eversource’s proposed work will run approximately 29.3 miles from Northfield’s substation, through Erving, Wendell, Montague, Leverett, Shutesbury, Pelham, Belchertown, Amherst and Granby, finishing at Ludlow’s substation. Ress also provided a slideshow showcasing some of the details of the project, which can be viewed at bit.ly/3S9UCsl.
The Hadley protest was organized by the Springfield Climate Justice Coalition in conjunction with a similar protest held in Springfield in response to an Eversource pipeline that would run through Longmeadow and Springfield. Naia Tenerowicz, an organizer with the coalition, said the goal was to inform the community about these projects.
“Often, these things fly completely under the radar,” Tenerowicz said. “Both for the fight up the Valley and the fight down here in Springfield, we had a really good turnout of folks in the community.”
At the company’s Hadley facility, protesters decried the utility company’s plan to cut down trees in its transmission corridors, saying trees are essential to sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.
“We’re raising awareness about how valuable trees are in our community. … We’ve been making quite a bit of noise about this for quite some time,” Leverett resident Don Ogden said by phone. “The more we cut down trees … the more we lose that natural carbon capture.”
Ress said the transmission line project is all about “vegetation management” around Eversource’s transmission lines, which are “the backbone of the electric grid.” The wide-ranging project is meant to protect the lines from trees around the corridor, not just those growing under the lines, due to the growing intensity of storms in the region.
“ Over the past few years we’ve all seen more severe storms, more frequently,” Ress said, adding that these storms can cause “extended outages” if vegetation is left unmitigated.
“It’s not as simple as saying a tree is so many feet tall and falls over. … These storms carry limbs, carry trees. We have to make sure hazards we see are hazards that we are addressing.”
Tenerowicz said both the Springfield and transmission line projects are “being framed as energy reliability” when communities should be able to have “energy democracy” when it comes to supplying electricity.
“Eversource should not have the right to cut down our forests or poison our communities to make money,” Tenerowicz said, adding a “clean, renewable energy grid that gives communities choice” is needed, along with a change to the way people live. “What we need to be doing is changing more than just our energy grid. We need to change the way we are living and the way we are engaging with our world.”
Ress said it is Eversource’s job to ensure electricity is delivered to communities, while also protecting the environment.
“It’s our responsibility to maintain these lines and maintain the integrity of this transmission equipment,” Ress said. “We are held to a standard, which we accept because we are the utility.”
The state’s Sept. 30 decision came after state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, requested the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office extend the public comment deadline on the project from August to Sept. 23, which was granted. Comerford and other legislators also hosted a forum with Eversource in August to brief the public on the project and requested the state require a full environmental impact report.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Comerford said she was happy the state listened to her, her legislative colleagues and many members of the public’s request to require a full environmental report.
Ogden, who is the host of the regional radio program The Enviro Show, said protesters were looking to raise awareness about Eversource’s push to file a single environmental impact report. After hearing the state is requiring a full report and that the company is complying, Ogden said it’s good to hear that news, but it’s still important to make their presence known.
“I’m glad to hear about that. … The message we were getting some weeks back was they didn’t want to do the full MEPA report,” he said. “It’s important that they know we’re watching.”
Tenerowicz added the requirement of a full environmental report is a good start to pushing back against projects that she and other protesters say can damage the environment.
“That was a really big win,” Tenerowicz said. “An environmental impact report cannot fully stop a project, but it can accurately report how a project impacts the environment and provide that information to decision makers.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.