Activists gathered at the site of a large gas leak in Somerville and protested National Grid’s inaction

Somerville mothers are fed up.

On July 25, members of Somerville Mothers Out Front joined residents, legislators, and allies to call attention to large gas leaks in National Grid’s aging infrastructure in East Somerville.

Paola Massoli, an East Somerville resident since 2010 and member of Mothers Out Front, feels a strong, personal call to advocate for fixing this infrastructure.

“I’ve been in the same house for the last nine years and, like every other resident in East Somerville, I’m in National Grid territory,” she said. “I’ve known for years about gas leaks in the area — it’s been an ongoing problem for 20 years — but I started getting involved in Mothers Out Front in Somerville because I knew they were raising awareness about leaks as a safety threat and an environmental threat.”

Though two thirds of Somerville’s gas service is provided by Eversource, East Somerville is largely National Grid. Massoli has worked with methane measurement tools in her career, so when trees started dying right outside her front door, she took it upon herself to do a quality measurement. Using the proper tools, and working with members of Gas Safety USA, she found the ground was saturated with concerning levels of methane gas.

“We are all aware of the relevance of methane as a greenhouse gas,” she said. “There are severe health implications, as well as for trees, safety, and climate change.”

In 2017, National Grid publicly stated their commitment to fixing large gas leaks and jointly submitted a Shared Action Plan with Columbia Gas, Eversource, Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET), and other allies to the Department of Public Utility. They promised to identify and fix large volume leaks using a new method (called the FluxBar) developed with Mothers Out Front and HEET.

Eversource and Columbia Gas are in compliance, but National Grid is not. They have announced they will use the old “barhole” method to measure leaks, which does not measure leak extent.

Research found that 7 percent of Boston area leaks are "large volume leaks" which are responsible for half of all the gas emitted from gas leaks. Fixing just these leaks, therefore, could make a big impact. Measuring with the barhole method would not report the size or extent of the leaks, however, so it would be unclear which leaks were being fixed.

“In Somerville, the problem is the entire length of Pearl Street, from McGrath all the way to Mt. Vernon is one big pipeline and it’s leaking throughout,” Massoli said. “Pipelines leak every 12 feet or so because that’s where the joints are, and these old pipes were put in the ground over 100 years ago. I’ve seen some dug out, and they’re completely corroded.”

On July 25, city leaders, including Representatives Christine Barber and Denise Provost as well as City Councilors Mark Niedergang and Will Mbah, met residents and activists at the East Somerville Community School, where Massoli said there is a large nearby leak, and take a “gas leak tour” down to Sullivan Square. As they walked, people reported smelling gas along the route. Massoli said they also heard from some business owners on Broadway, who said they've been having trouble keeping area trees alive.

Massoli hoped this would highlight the serious and pressing nature of the problem. Leaking gas is 86 more times warming to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, so local gas leaks are a real problem for climate change.

“This is the story,” she said. “The only thing to do is rip apart the entire street and replace the entire pipe. Replacing a bit at a time doesn’t work – you fix one spot and gas leaks out another place. It’s so much more expensive to do it section by section.”

She said the city is also losing money by removing dead trees and replanting in their place, when those trees have no hope of surviving due to the high gas saturation of the soil. Since trees are essential to the wellbeing of the city and residents, she said, ensuring their lasting health is vital.

If residents smell gas, Massoli recommends calling National Grid directly or the Somerville Fire Department through 311.