UPDATE: Some of the residents involved in the protest were arrested Thursday.
A standoff developed Thursday morning between BGE and residents of neighborhoods opposed to having outdoor gas regulators installed on their homes, as homeowners in Federal Hill actively blocked workers from shutting off gas to their homes.
On Wednesday, BGE shut off gas to four homes after only three hours’ notice via email and/or door tags, according to Kate Simms, president of the Fells Point Residents’ Association (FPRA). Simms told Baltimore Fishbowl that BGE must give residents 14-day notice, and residents must have an option to appeal.
“BGE sent emails between 9 and 10 am, and shut off power at noon,” Simms said about the four households whose gas BGE terminated Wednesday.
Residents gathered Thursday morning on Warren Avenue in Federal Hill to prevent shut off to five more homes, which they are doing by standing on top of the area BGE workers need to drill in the street to access gas shut-off.
Simms said this prompted BGE to call the police to remove the residents, with the complaint that they were preventing BGE from accessing their equipment. Simms said this is not an accurate complaint.
“We’re not preventing them access to their equipment in an emergency situation. We’re preventing them from illegally shutting off gas to homes. That’s very different,” Simms told Fishbowl.
As of publication time, BGE and residents were at a stalemate. Police were still there, but have not told residents to move or cease their activity. (Editor’s note: Police later arrested several protesters Thursday afternoon.)
“We countered by asking police if they were willing to stand guard to make sure that when BGE accessed their equipment they wouldn’t illegally shut off our gas,” Simms said. “They were not.”
Residents are concerned about the safety of placing the regulators on the outside of their homes, where they say the regulators will be more vulnerable to vandalism and damage from scooters, bicycles, and car collissions. They also argue that the regulators will negatively impact the appearance of their homes in federally registered historic neighborhoods.
David Lapp, People’s Counsel of the Office of People’s Counsel (OPC), has similar safety concerns. He has pointed to data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to show “the greatest safety risk from fossil gas explosions is from outside force damage, and particularly damage from vehicle collisions.”
“We are unaware of any analysis showing that safety risks associated with regulators are greater inside the home than outside the home, but placing regulators outside of people’s homes obviously increases the risk of force damage through accidents and vandalism,” he said.
Eight neighborhood associations have retained former Maryland deputy attorney general Thiru Vignarajah to take legal action against BGE.
Following residents’ announcement last week of their planned legal action, BGE communications manager Talon Sachs told Baltimore Fishbowl “BGE cannot comment on pending or threatened legal action.”
Regarding residents’ complaints, Sachs has told Fishbowl in previous communications that the new regulators are part of BGE’s process of “modernizing its gas system by replacing its aging low-pressure gas infrastructure with a higher-pressure system” to make natural gas service “more reliable and resilient.”
BGE has reiterated that external gas regulators are safer than internal ones to reduce the effects of gas leaks.
“Today, unfortunately, residents interfered with our scheduled work in Federal Hill by purposefully entering an active work site,” Sachs told Baltimore Fishbowl in an email Thursday. “This action put our contractors at risk of injury. We safely stopped work to allow the proper authorities to intervene and will continue our work when it is safe to do so.”
Sachs added that BGE hopes to avoid disconnecting residents’ gas service, but will do so if residents to not allow the gas company access to necessary equipment.
“When work is required on our equipment to meet our commitment to deliver safe and reliable energy, our customers are required to provide BGE with unobstructed access to this equipment under the terms of BGE’s Gas Service Tariff as well as applicable regulations,” they said. “This includes all piping up to and including the gas meter. Any action to deny access to the equipment will start a service disconnection process per the Gas Service Tariff. Our desired approach is to avoid service interruptions, but in some situations, it is necessary to maintain the integrity of our systems.”
In a statement Monday, the Fell’s Point Residents Association condemned BGE’s actions and urged support from city and state leaders.
“Rather than engage in meaningful conversation with concerned citizens, BGE once again relied on strong-arm tactics and stooped to a new low by having peaceful protestors arrested and detained,” FPRA said in a statement. “It’s beyond concerning that a multi-billion-dollar corporation can use our city’s police force as their personal corporate enforcers. Our city and state leaders should be supporting its residents in their right to protect their safety and property. This was a sad day for Baltimore.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with a response from BGE and a statement from the Fell’s Point Residents Association.
