Gas leaks policies and data - Middlesex County (City Clerk)

Ms. Lipton,

I write in response to your public records request sent to the City Clerk's office on January 5, 2017. Your request seeks:

"Please include any ordinances, policies, procedures, or related materials regarding:

* the necessity of gas companies to report existing gas leaks to municipal officials
* the necessity of gas companies to survey areas for the existence of gas leaks
* the necessity of gas companies to repair known gas leaks

Please also include any data, statistics, maps, and other materials detailing the location and severity of known gas leaks in the areas under the jurisdiction of this municipality. Please include any data acquired from the Department of Public Utilities regarding gas leaks within this municipality.

Please include all requests from gas companies for construction and digging related to gas leaks.

Please include all requests for repair made by this municipality to companies regarding gas leaks. Please also provide all responses.

Please provide all data, statistics, maps, and other materials regarding the decay or destruction of trees and other foliage in relation to the presence of gas leaks."

Please be advised that due to the volume of the request, the City will need more than ten days to gather the records that you are seeking. This is in part because of the breadth of your request, and because it is not limited in time. The City expects that it will be able to furnish any responsive documents by January 30, 2017, in accordance with M.G.L. c. 66, Section 10, (b) (vi).

Many of the records that you requested are not within the custody or control of the City of Lowell. This includes data acquired from the DPU, as no such data has been acquired. The City does not maintain any policies specifically related to gas leaks. The City also does not have any records regarding the decay or destruction of trees or other foliage in relation to the presence of gas leaks. The City also does not have any of its own directives regarding location and repair of gas leaks, as these are DPU records. I have attached the City's most recent copy of DPU directives to this email. The City also does not have its own ordinances related to gas leaks, and follows state requirements. In addition, and for future reference, the City ordinances are available online at: http://ecode360.com/LO1990. The City does not plan to withhold any documents.

To my knowledge, the only responsive documents in the City's custody and control are street opening permit applications from gas companies, which are required for construction. As your request is unlimited in time, I suggest narrowing it to five years so that we may more quickly get these records to you. See M.G.L. c. 66, Section 10 (b) (vii). The permits are numerous and older records are not easily accessible.

If you would like the City to produce the street opening permit applications for the last five years, please reply to this email so that I may send you an invoice for the estimated time and cost. Feel free to give me a call to discuss.

Please be advised that you have a right to appeal this response. You may petition the Supervisor of Records at the following address:
SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH
DIVISION OF PUBLIC RECORDS
1 ASHBURN PLACE, RM. 1719
BOSTON, MA 02108

In addition, please be advised that you have the right to seek judicial review of an unfavorable decision by commencing a civil action in the Superior Court under subsection (c) of section 10A.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
Hannah
Hannah Pappenheim | Assistant City Solicitor
City of Lowell - Law Department
City Hall, 375 Merrimack Street, 3rd Floor | Lowell, MA 01852-5909
Tel: 978.674.4050 | Fax: 978.453.1510 | http://www.lowellma.gov<http://www.lowellma.gov/>
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Ms. Lipton,

In follow-up to my January 12, 2017 email, the City has identified those records responsive to your request.

Limiting the request to the last five years, the City has identified two sets of responsive documents. The first are street opening permit applications from gas companies, of which the City has identified 942 such permits. In order for the City to respond to your request, it must pull the applicable files, scan or copy the permits, and then refile them. At a conservative estimate of five minutes per permit, this will take 78.5 hours. Additional time will be incurred compiling the individual scans into an email-deliverable format. As such, please find an invoice for the requested records below. This invoice assumes that email receipt is acceptable, and therefore does not include copy fees, storage device or postage.
Time to segregate and compile records: 82 hours
Per hour charge: $25.00
Total Charge: $2, 050.00

In addition, the City has identified records from the Fire Department regarding citizens calling in suspected gas leaks. In the past five years, the Fire Department has received roughly 600 such calls. In order to identify which of those calls were reported to the gas company, the Fire Department has had to open, read, and segregate each applicable call report. Additional time will be incurred compiling the individual scans into an email-deliverable format. As such, please find an invoice for that set of documents below. Again, this invoice assumes that email receipt is acceptable, and therefore does not include copy fees, storage device or postage.

Time to segregate and compile records: 32 hours
Per hour charge: $25.00 for 18 hours
$23.00 for 14 hours
Total Charge: $772.00

Total Charge for Responsive Records: $2, 822.00

Please remit a check for the above total to the City of Lowell. Once we receive payment, the records will be sent to you.

If you wish to appeal the City’s response, you may petition the Supervisor of Records. The petition should be sent to the following address:
SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH
DIVISION OF PUBLIC RECORDS
1 ASHBURN PLACE, RM. 1719
BOSTON, MA 02108

In addition, please be advised that you have the right to seek judicial review of an unfavorable decision by commencing a civil action in the Superior Court under MGL c. 66 section 10A, subsection (c).
Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
Hannah