To the editor:

I am writing in response to your Aug. 11 article regarding the Mayflower Wind Project and I must applaud all the residents who expressed their concerns about the project. 

As you have reported in the past National Grid, now Rhode Island Energy, has operated an LNG pumping station on Old Mill Lane for the past three winters. On April 4, 2022, National Grid filed its longterm solution with the Energy Facility Sitting Board as ordered. National Grid’s only solution to maintain gas viability longterm on Aquidneck Island is its Old Mill Lane site. The Town of Middletown, the Rhode Island attorney general and Acadia Center have all filed petitions with the board opposing the site’s construction. Portsmouth has not. 

In order to address the board’s concerns regarding the sites affect on property owners, National Grid has offered to purchase 13 properties should the construction go forward. Should the sales go through National Grid would acquire an additional 30-plus acres of residential land in both Portsmouth and Middletown, some of which National Grid already has pipeline easements to. 

National Grid currently justifies it Old Mill site by stating it is the property owner going back to 1952 and therefore it should be allowed to do what it wants. Imagine what they might do with additional land. I am included in National Grid’s buyout, therefore given two choices: Take the money or try and preserve the area for future generations. I am sure that the original sellers in 1952 never for saw our current situation; in fact it directly affects their decedents. The Town of Portsmouth should be acting as good stewards of our community’s land unfortunately they are not. They have place myself and my neighbors in a terrible situation.

I encourage all Portsmouth residents to thoroughly question any utility expansions in Portsmouth. Those Portsmouth residents who are going to be affected by the Mayflower Wind project need to look at National Grid’s Old Mill Lane project and the ramifications to that neighborhood prior to any approval of the Mayflower Wind’s cable project in Portsmouth.

Sincerely,

Lori and Stephen MacDonald

124 Old Mill Lane

Portsmouth