Mothers Out Front Take On Gas Leaks in Newton

NEWTON, MA — On Saturday, mothers and their allies gathered in front of the Newton Free library at the plaza by the Homer Street entrance with a message and a mission; Take to the streets, tag gas leaks and raise awareness about an unseen hazard.

Mothers Out Front Newton is an activist group made up of mothers and other caregivers with the aim of raising awareness about climate change sponsored the event along with a number of other community groups. There's a network of Mother's Out Front across the country and a number of them in Massachusetts were out in force Saturday campaigning to fix gas leaks in the state.

Newton has more than 400 methane gas leaks from aging, underground pipes. Gas leaks speed up climate change, kill trees and waste energy, and consumers end up paying for those leaks.

According to data provided by National Grid, Newton and Brookline lead the state with number of leaks. These leaks emit methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas, which traps heat 86 times more effectively than carbon dioxide for the first 20 years after its release. Just 7 percent of leaks, the “super-emitters” emit 50 percent of the gas leaked, and fixing them could reduce this problem by half, according to MOF.

A small crowd gathered Saturday to hear a few words about the campaign and then headed out to post fliers near known leaks in Newton's antiquated gas pipelines armed with maps indicating the sites of leaks, and laminated sheets to attach to light poles, signs or other nearby structures/ or trees.

Mothers Out Front Brookline organized the event to call attention to the leaks and to build support for the Gas Leaks Consumer Cost Protection Bill, (House Bill H.2683 and Senate Bill S.1845) before the state legislature.

"These bills will prevent utility companies from passing on the cost of leaked gas to consumers, and provide incentives for them to find and fix the biggest leaks first," according to a statement from Brookline Mother's Out Front. Similar bills passed in Texas and Pennsylvania resulted in dramatic reductions in methane gas leaks.

Gas leaks account for 10 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions of Massachusetts.

Mothers Out Front plan to take the gas leak posters down before June, to avoid contributing to waste in the town, according to a statement.

Photo courtesy of Newton Mother's Out Front/ photo by Meg Wilcox. [Bob Warren and Cory Alperstein tag a leak by placing a flier on a tree close to the leak]