Arlington Take Station

The existing site is owned by Kinder Morgan, and we simply utilize space (some underground) to house our current 50-year-old regulator runs. Even if this parcel was owned by National Grid, it could not accommodate our proposed infrastructure to meet compliance and safety standards of the current era.

The adjoining parcel is owned by National Grid. It has gone undeveloped because we did not want to impact the community in an undue way. We would not be doing this project if it were not necessary but, due to aging infrastructure and out of compliant design, we must pursue this option to serve our customers in Arlington and beyond.

We explored all of our options, but the existing access is also owned by Kinder Morgan and is not able to allow crews to pull trucks in to do work without being a safety and traffic risk to residents.

This project qualifies under essential service permit due to the aging infrastructure as well as the services we provide to customers in Arlington. We cannot accurately portion the cost to residents of the gas service, but we can definitively say that there is demand for reliable and safe gas to our customers. That safety is also essential to the entire community as we all try to find a cleaner energy future.

Updated engineering designs, materials, and technology have evolved over 50 years since this station was built. Therefore, the new design will have added capacity. However, the added capacity is negligible and not a need driver for our work. We do not put this project forth in an effort to plan for gas expansion.

Our dedicated environmental scientists care deeply about the impact of every detail of our work. We have reviewed our design and engineering with our team, and they allowed us to move forward. However, we are certainly open to any discussion and third-party review.

The lighting will be motion activated for workers to operate safely, while also minimizing impact to the neighbors. The fencing is designed to deter animals from entering our site, but if they are to move or fly within the sensors, they will not be large enough to trigger them.

National Grid benefits customers through this project through providing reliable gas. The community of Arlington does have customers who depend on us. More importantly, this project is about safety to the immediate neighborhood and the town of Arlington.

Both the upgrades to the gas system and the security proposed around the system are important to us to ensure that children can walk to school without worrying and neighbors can have peace of mind that there is a safe and compliant system in their neighborhood.

We have listened to you, and we hear you regarding the visual appearance of our proposed site. This has been carefully reviewed by the project team, and we have pushed to find the best possible replacement and enhancement of the plantings around the site.

Some plantings may not provide the same visual mitigation due to their lack of height, which will need to be considered.

We will only be expanding on property that is owned by National Grid. We will not be expanding Kinder Morgan’s fence but will have a separate fence surrounding our facilities for safety and security.

Part of the cut through has been created by foot traffic on our property. There will be impacts to this part unfortunately. This is not a designated Trail by municipal or state authorities.

However, there will still be a cut through when construction completes, and we would like to work with the community to ensure that it is still usable and safe. We would like to not restrict access to our property, and we understand this is an important path to safely avoid traffic in the area.

We have coordinated with the town to first understand the rules and regulations in place to preserve Arlington’s environment. We walked the site with the tree warden and marked specific trees that need to be removed. As part of this work, we have committed ~$40,000 to the Arlington Tree Fund to compensate for the number of trees we are removing.

We have an extensive visual mitigation plan for our property to replace what is removed. We do want to be good neighbors, and certainly can have discussions around additional trees, but the focus for us is mitigating visual impacts from direct sight of the new facilities.

Due to the slope of the hill, you will be able to see some of the fence and the structures. However, we have taken viewshed analysis into account in our preliminary design and plantings and can walk through renderings and visual simulations with neighbors on a case-by-case basis.

National Grid has an extensive and ongoing effort to replace leak prone pipe throughout Arlington. The company works closely with the town to replace these leaks as quick as possible while complying with local ordinances around work scheduling. This project, although connected to the grid, is not related to these efforts, and our team is dedicated to ensuring that this component of our system is up to code and safe.

If you would like to report a leak or find out more information, we can certainly direct you to the appropriate sector of our gas business.