I’ve drafted a call for an official #DPUInvestigation of the #WalnutStreetGasExplosion in the #CityOfNewtonMA and welcome suggestions on how my wording can be improved to strengthen the case:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DkYcspWYtKfKp0d_NtUJzbiKXvZrhQUTShwS2cXMHAI/edit

I found an explosive level of gas (6%) this evening in an #Eversource electric utility hole, fed by a leaking 12” cast iron #NationalGrid gas main.

This is at the same location as a June 20, 2022 explosion which injured a worker, at an #Eversource substation.

This substation was initially implicated in the 4/6/23 #WalnutStreetGasExplosion causal chain.

This is directly across from #CityOfNewtonMA City Hall, next to the #NewtonFreeLibrary, parking lot on Homer Street.

Yesterday, in front of the Newton Education Center, 100 Walnut Street, #CityOfNewtonMA, where #Eversource said then retracted, that the April 6, #WalnutStreetGasExplosion was triggered, I found #NationalGrid gas leaking into an #Eversource utility hole (toward middle of the street) near the flooded storm drain in foreground. Gas was steady at 6,000 ppm (3000x ambient). On a prior visit it exceeded 10,000 ppm.

Any gas leaking into high voltage buried electric infrastructure = unacceptable risk.

Solutions thread on the #WalnutStreetGasExplosion

TLDR: We can both fix it, very soon, AND pave an off-ramp off gas, without forcing any resident off gas.

1/n

My public comment narrating live on-scene video of a ~27% (270,000 ppm) gas leak ~50 feet from the explosions site, & calling for a #DPUInvestigation of the #WalnutStreetGasExplosion, at the #CityOfNewtonMA Public Facilities Committee hearing.

This comment =13 days after the explosions. There’s been no public acknowledgment of the gas leaks at the explosion site by the #CityOfNewtonMA, except to admit to a hazardous condition nearby in an e-mail.

Go to 09:15 here:
https://youtu.be/ez4IF9SpT0M