Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-09-30-UTIL-rpt.pdf DTE 03-87 DTE 03-87 - September 30, 2003 Public Hearing Violation by the utilities of MGL Chapter 164 , Section 34B regarding removal of double poles within 90 days My name is Patrick Mehr, I reside at 31 Woodcliffe Road in Lexington I am an elected Town Meeting Member representing Precinct 3 in Lexington, and a member of the Electric Utility Ad-hoc Committee ("Committee") established by the Lexington Board of Selectmen in February 2002 to address issues around electricity distribution in Town, including double poles Our Committee has worked hard over the past 18 months to get the utilities to comply with the statute, and I will summarize our efforts The bad news is that the pole owners (NStar and Verizon, with Verizon responsible to install new poles and remove old ones in Lexington, as per agreement between the two utilities) are still in widespread violation of the statute There are currently between 250-400 double poles along our streets, a large number of which have been there for far longer than the 90 days allowed, sometimes for several years The good news is that our Committee has now identified three root causes of non-compliance with the statute (1) The utilities have so far not focused on this problem, because they have no incentive to do so, except perhaps the risk of bad publicity (2) Verizon and NStar have not paid sufficient attention to their responsibility as pole co-owners to manage the transfers of wires and equipment by the various pole users (in Lexington, in addition to Verizon and NStar, the major users are RCN, Comcast, and on about 25-30% of poles, the Lexington Fire Department) (3) Verizon and NStar have not assigned sufficient resources (management staff and field crews) to attain compliance with MGL Chapter 164, Section 34B Our Committee welcomes this opportunity to share our experience with this frustrating problem and urges the Department to propose enforcement measures to the Legislature, without which we do not expect the utilities to ever comply with the statute Our Committee will describe in the technical session the enforcement measures we recommend We believe enforcement should be local and accompanied by fines, the amount of which must increase the longer each violation continues Additionally, the powers Towns and Cities already have to remove unused poles from public rights-of-way (MGL Chapter 86, 1 DTE 03-87 Section 7) must be clarified to limit municipalities ' financial risks, a prerequisite for such powers to be practically used Double poles are a visual eye sore Attachment 1 illustrates the negative impact of double poles on how public spaces look For example, a double pole can be found right across the main entrance to the National Heritage Museum Being "the birthplace of the American Revolution", Lexington welcomes many visitors from the US and abroad in its town center, which has substantial historic significance Yet, two poles that collapsed across the street from the Lexington Town Hall in the center of Town in July 2002 (making front page of the Lexington Minuteman see attachment 2) are still double poles 15 months later ! Lexington residents are upset at the negative visual impact of the many double poles across Town (attachment 3) , especially because the excessive number of double poles results from the continued and widespread violation by the utilities of the existing statute It is difficult to explain to citizens that utilities (NStar and Verizon) are allowed to violate State law without consequences It is even more difficult for citizens to understand why the Town continues to grant requests for new pole locations to the very utilities that violate the law Efforts of our Committee nothing seems to work Based on a partial survey of Lexington streets completed in August 2001, we estimated there were at that time about 238 double poles in Town Lexington has a total of 159 5 miles of streets, of which 18 1 miles have underground utility infrastructure, mainly in the center of Town and in recent commercial and residential developments There are approximately 6, 400 utility poles along the 141 4 miles of streets with overhead utility infrastructure During the March-September 2002 period, our Committee met 7 times with Verizon, NStar and the other owners of wires and equipment on the poles (RCN, AT&T Broadband [now Comcast] , Lexington Fire Department) Verizon and Nstar stated that transfers of wires and equipment must be performed in order, from the top of each double pole (Nstar) to the bottom (Verizon) This requires either that the pole owners coordinate the process by notifying each user of the specific double poles on which they must next transfer their wires and equipment, or that the pole owners find a way for one crew (or a subcontractor) to perform all transfers of wires and equipment at one time on each double pole 2 DTE 03-87 Following is a summary of what those 7 meetings accomplished March 14, 2002 initial meeting; no progress as only Verizon had been invited, on the wrong assumption that as "owner" of poles in Lexington, Verizon can manage the double poles issue March 22, 2002 initial meeting with all actors; agreement that NStar' s database will be the focal point for managing who must transfer wires next at each double pole April 11, 2002 new NStar database presented (includes 254 double poles in Lexington, but with many inaccuracies when compared with the list of 226 double poles identified by our Committee; Lexington Fire Department to receive real time access to the database June 25, 2002 Robert Reid, a Lexington citizen, volunteered to survey all streets and found 308 double poles in Lexington, which NStar will enter into its database (see attachment 4) ; information in NStar database about who must next transfer wires is inaccurate; since April 2001, our Committee has seen only 26 double poles resolved July 16, 2002 double poles surveyed by Robert Reid are in NStar database (399 records; still has duplicates and other problems) ; order in which wires must be transferred on each double pole is unknown; Verizon will conduct a field survey to determine that order August 14, 2002 NStar database has 441 double poles with the order in which wires must be transferred (following Verizon field survey) , but still many duplicates and other problems; Verizon to announce at next meeting how many double poles were resolved in past month September 17, 2002 NStar database has 397 double poles (including 30 new ones to be entered in database) ; Verizon could not report how many double poles were resolved in past month; issue is no longer the database, but management attention and availability of crews Through those meetings, our Committee (i) helped Verizon and NStar fine-tune the format of their online database of double poles (see attachment 5) , (ii) highlighted the critical need for ongoing and accurate updates of that database (without which numerous physical surveys of our streets will become necessary, creating additional costs for the utilities) , which in turn necessitates discipline in how crews from the pole owners and tenants report each completed transfer of wires 3 DTE 03-87 The meetings were discontinued when it became clear that Verizon and NStar were not putting enough emphasis on the double pole issue to keep the database up-to-date and to provide, as pole owners, the necessary leadership and coordination to the other entities involved regarding who must next transfer its wires on each specific double pole As an example, real-time access to the database was provided to the Lexington Fire Department until approximately November 2002 when the database was transferred from NStar to Verizon Since November 2002, such access has no longer been available to the Lexington Fire Department Even though the Lexington Fire Department signed the paperwork required by Verizon to reinstate its online access to Verizon' s database approximately 2 months ago, such access to the database not yet been provided by Verizon We do not know whether RCN and Comcast currently have access to the Verizon database of double poles Leo McSweeney, Chairman of the Lexington Board of Selectman, wrote to Verizon and NStar on October 29, 2002 asking for a plan to eliminate double poles in Lexington (attachment 6) Verizon answered on January 15, 2003 (attachment 7) promising that "Verizon will have a crew in Lexington two to three days a week solely dedicated to the removal mf double poles It is our estimate that this effort will result in the elimination of 20 double poles per month I will provide a list of removals to you every two weeks and an overall update in three months, as you asked " Leo McSweeney answered Verizon on March 12, 2003 (attachment 8) indicating that Lexington expects a net reduction of 20 poles per month (after counting the newly created double poles) , leading to a resolution of the double poles problem by the summer of 2004 Since Verizon failed to provide lists of removals of double poles every 2 weeks and the overall update promised in its January 15, 2003 letter, Leo McSweeney sent another letter to Verizon on September 19 2003 (attachment 9) asking Verizon to provide a full status report on double poles to the Board of Selectmen and notifying Verizon that the Town will consider such options as compliance requirements [with MGL Chapter 164, Section 34B] in the grant of locations and filing of a formal complaint before the Department of Telecommunications and Energy" Most recently, Verizon and NStar have indicated that 142 double poles were removed between February-September 2003, or an average of 17 double poles per month The utilities have still not indicated how many new double poles have been created during the same time period, making it impossible for our Committee to determine whether any progress has been achieved at all towards a net reduction in the number of double poles in Lexington (estimated by Verizon' s database 4 DTE 03-87 to now number 250, but our Committee does not know whether the accuracy of the database is now acceptable, making this figure suspect; our Committee had identified more than 400 double poles a year ago) We note that DTE, in Chairman Connelly' s January 9, 2002 letter to Verizon and Nstar (attachment 10) , stated that "the Department is working with the Town of Brookline and the utilities [ ] Once the Department has extracted the lessons from its Brookline investigation, we [ ] will, at some point in 2002, issue, as need be, directives on reform of existing practices " We are not aware that DTE has issued any such directives, perhaps because working with the utilities in Brookline has been just as difficult for DTE as it has been for our Committee to work with Verizon and Nstar in Lexington except perhaps bad publicity It is interesting to note that when faced with bad publicity or threatened with the prospect of bad publicity, the utilities appear capable to remove a specific double pole very quickly, within one week Mr Weiss, at the suggestion of our Committee, emailed to Verizon the draft of his letter to the Editor of the Lexington Minuteman prior to publication and saw "his" double pole removed within days (attachment 11) Similarly, within days of publication of Mr and Mrs Weaver' s letter in the Lexington Minuteman, "their" double pole was gone Finally, our Committee knows of a third example where Verizon removed a double pole to avoid impending negative publicity These three instances indicate that the utilities can promptly remove double poles when they want to do so Conclusion Notwithstanding our Committee ' s extensive efforts, the utilities are still in widespread violation of State law, yet they can resolve individual double pole situations quickly We believe that enforcement measures for MGL Chapter 164, Section 34B must be enacted, so that the utilities have an incentive to resolve the double poles problem, and to comply with State law We will propose such enforcement measures in the technical session 5