Gas Leaks Result in High Bills for Belmont, State Rate Payers

Any reader of the Belmont Fire Log in Belmont Patch will be familiar with appears to be a weekly event: fire crews heading to a gas leak on some street in Belmont. 

Last October, Hawthorne Street neighbors had complained of an ongoing problem with a gas leak that National Grid has been to the street several times. Early in the spring, a gas leak in the street reportedly seeped into a house's basement in the Waverley neighborhood causing firefighters to scramble to ventilate the structure.

Last week, it was reported that natural gas consumers in Massachusetts have paid an additional $1.5 billion over the last decade for fuel they never received because local utilities such as National Grid and others are not replacing hundreds of miles of old, leaky pipelines quickly enough, according to a just released congressional study.

The problem is most felt by customers in states like Massachusetts, where the gas pipeline system is older, according to the study, done by the Democratic staff of the House Natural Resources Committee at the request of Senator Edward Markey when he served on the panel, said the Boston Globe.

Repairing problematic pipes in Massachusetts would save consumers an estimated $156 million over the next 10 years — even after the cost of repairs, the study estimated.