STATE MAY PAY FOR LATE DATA DUMP
Weymouth gas project analyzed in 759 pages
The Department of Environmental Protection faces possible sanctions and has been ordered by a hearing officer to provide all email messages sent and received last week in connection with air quality data that was suddenly introduced in the case of a controversial natural gas project in Weymouth.
In a new order to show cause on Monday, hearing officer Jane Rothchild directed the Department of Environmental Protection to explain why its attorneys waited until the final day of an appeal hearing to disclose 759 pages of potentially relevant information, calling it an “unacceptable” delay.
Rothchild, who oversees appeal and dispute cases at the DEP and is hearing the legal challenge against the air quality permit issued for the Enbridge natural gas compressor station, demanded that the department answer questions around the Friday data dump and demonstrate why sanctions are not warranted.
“According to representations made to me by the Department’s attorney at the Hearing on May 17, 2019, the Department received the data from a laboratory on Monday, May 13, 2019, two days prior to the start of the Hearing on Wednesday, May 15, 2019,” Rothchild wrote. “The Department’s delay in disclosing the data to the other parties to the appeal until after the close of business on May 16, 2019, is unacceptable and may warrant the imposition of sanctions against the Department pursuant to 310 CMR 1.01,” the state regulatory code that references the department’s adjudicatory hearings.
The 759-page document contained new test results from air samples around the site of the proposed compressor station.
DEP attorneys said Friday they did not believe the new information would have affected a health impact assessment concluding the facility would not cause significant health concerns.
However, the Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, which has opposed the station, said Monday it found more than 9,000 changes in the new data, including the presence of at least 11 toxins not detected in the initial version.
DEP attorneys said during the hearing Friday that they released the data as soon as they could “responsibly,” then told reporters to contact an agency spokesperson.
An agency spokesperson has declined to offer comment since Friday and could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
Rothchild directed the department to respond to her order by 5 p.m. Wednesday.