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Trust to help mend gas leaks that choke 1000s of trees to death

from oct 4 2006 9

The natural gas leaks might be harmless to people, but not that kind with the trees. They can kill the public shade trees by choking off the oxygen at their roots. And this is happening to thousands of trees in and around Boston.

But, the gas companies seem to be least interested in fixing it before it’s too late – it’s not harming, rather devastating humans after all! Bob Ackley informs on the prevailing problem after spending 25 years testing natural gas lines for leaks.

Ackley said,

We can’t be losing these trees. Every tree that we lose that’s 60, 70, 80 years old, it’s going to take 60, 70 years to replace.

Gas company representatives justifies their reluctance to repair the problem saying that leaks are widespread and federal regulations require them to detect and repair leaks annually. According to them, these tree-killing leaks are not that big a problem.

As a remedy, a new trust will be open at no cost to any of the state’s 260 communities having natural gas lines. And, once a community joins the trust, it will be cataloging any trees that are damaged by natural gas leaks.

The trust will then try to negotiate damage payments with gas companies. To boost Ackley’s spirit, Marshfield became the first community to join earlier this month.

Photo credit:
AP/Massachusetts Public Shade Tree Trust, Bob Ackley

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