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

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I hereby request the following records:

Any and all directive materials and data regarding the location and repair of gas leaks within this municipality.

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.

If further clarification is necessary, please contact the MuckRock office at 617-299-1832.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Beryl Lipton

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I hereby request the following records:

Any and all directive materials and data regarding the location and repair of gas leaks within this municipality.

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.

If further clarification is necessary, please contact the MuckRock office at 617-299-1832.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Beryl Lipton

Hi Karen,

Thanks so much for the phone call this morning. If you could limit this request to cover materials from January 1, 2016 though the present, I'd really appreciate it. Please let me know if there's any further clarification that I can provide.

Best wishes,
Beryl

January 1, 2016

Hi Kara,

Thank you so much for the update. As we discussed during yesterday's phone call, please feel free to omit calls related to gas leaks that ultimately turned out to be inappropriate and actually related to other issues. Please let me know if there's any other clarification I can provide.

Thanks!
Beryl

Hi Kara,

Thank you so much for the update. As we discussed, please feel free to omit calls related to gas leaks that ultimately turned out to be inappropriate and actually related to other issues. Also feel free to remove personally-identifiable information. Also feel free to omit reports that require excessive redaction; however, if in lieu of that, you could provide a count of how many reports are omitted and, if possible, for what reason, that would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if there's any other clarification I can provide.

Thanks!
Beryl