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WHO ARE WE? Residents protecting our communities; a group of 4,400 and growing, formed in response to Spectra Energy Algonquin Pipeline Transmission LLC’s Access Northeast gas pipeline project which includes a 10,320+ horsepower fracked gas compressor station in Rehoboth. CARCS represents residents and business owners of Rehoboth, Attleboro and Seekonk; grandparents, mothers and fathers, and young adults interested in protecting the health and safety of our towns.
Current Project Status
·In June 2017, Spectra’s Access Northeast was put on hold, while they aggressively seek funding for the project. If they are successful, we fully expect Enbridge Inc to refile the same infrastructure project again, with a compressor station for Rehoboth.
·In February 2017, Canadian company Enbridge Inc merged with Spectra Energy. Enbridge Inc. is now the largest global energy infrastructure company in North America.
·In August 2016, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision blocked the mechanism for ratepayers to pay for Spectra Energy’s gas pipeline infrastructure project.
CARCS Misson Statement
The Citizens Against the Compressor Station (CARCS) is a grass roots, bi-partisan, federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit group that was formed to educate residents in Rehoboth, Seekonk, Attleboro (and affected towns) about Spectra Energy’s Access Northeast (ANE) pipeline expansion and its negative implications for our state. By conducting an informed, fact based, data driven campaign, CARCS seeks to ignite and mobilize a formidable public resistance that will stop Spectra Energy Algonquin Pipeline Transmission LLC’s ANE project in its entirety, which includes but is not limited to a gas compressor station sited for Rehoboth Massachusetts.
Why is Enbridge doing this?
It boils down to corporate greed. Enbridge plans to ship the gas internationally.
The proposal for the compressor station is our part of three new pipeline projects being proposed in our state. In the past decade our dependency on gas for electricity has grown exponentially, to where it is today at 60%. By means of these combined projects, Enbridge is seeking to expand our pipeline capacity by an additional 35%. This includes a plan to build a new compressor station in Rehoboth, which is needed to pressurize the added volumes of gas along existing and new pipeline, that will link to the Northeast and Maritimes pipeline that connects Massachusetts to waiting LNG facilities on the Canadian coast. Once there, the gas reserves will be liquefied and exported to Europe and Asia for corporate profit.
Compressor Station Site
10,320 HP Plant
The Compressor Station is a serious threat to the health,
safety, environment, and economy, of the towns of Rehoboth, Attleboro, and Seekonk and as a well-water only community, Rehoboth has the added concern about the potential for water contaminaton.
Spectra Energy plans to build an 10,320-horsepower Natural Gas Compressor Station off Finnegan's Way in Rehoboth, bordering Attleboro and Seekonk. This will adversely affect the quality of life and property values of residents from all three towns.
Attleboro-Rehoboth Town Line
Seekonk-Rehoboth Town Line
Planned location for Compressor Station
What Are The Risks of a Compressor Station being built here?
Compressor Stations are usually built in rural locations because of their environmental impacts, including air, noise, and odor pollution concerns. There's also a scary track record of accidents, not to mention the periodic blowdowns that will disrupt residents and cause unknown health impacts.
What a Compressor Station "blowdown" looks and sounds like:
Spectra talks a lot about normal daily operations, and downplays the periodic blowdowns that occur at all Compressor Stations. These are done for maintenance, to relieve gas pressure, or in the case of an emergency. During a blowdown, millions of cubic feet of untreated natural gas is released into the air. These acute releases can cause serious heath effects.
If installed, the first thing you will notice is NOISE, and a lot of it. Video of compressor station 'blowdown':
A thermal imaging camera shows the "invisible" toxic emissions released by a Compressor Station, including 10 cancer-causing chemicals:
Air: Pollution & Health Effects
What you don't see can hurt you.
Compressor Stations run 24/7 and release dangerous chemicals under normal operations and millions of cubic-feet of untreated natural gas during scheduled and emergency Blowdowns (an estimated 10-36 times per year). Normal operations will release 10 Cancer Causing Chemicals into the air. During "blowdowns," hundreds of pounds of untreated natural gas will be emitted into our community.