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Source: Massachusetts Interactive Property Map. Pictured is the portion of Chestnut Street which crosses the Charles River, and which is the area of the PTC transmission fluid leak.
12-27-2023 10:18pm
PTC Transmission Fluid Released from Pipe into Charles River in Dover
Darlene Cancell
Editor
An unknown volume of Pipe-Type Cable (PTC) transmission fluid appears to have been released from an underground Eversource transmission pipe in Dover, on the south side of the Chestnut Street bridge that crosses the Charles River, and was discovered by Eversource on Saturday, December 23, 2023, according to a notice from Eversource which Dover Police and Needham Police each separately posted to Facebook on Tuesday, December 26th. It was discovered by Eversource when “[t]he PTC fluid was observed trickling through a crack in the paved roadway,” states the notice.
Eversource’s notice states that MassDEP was notified within two hours of Eversource’s knowledge of the release, and absorbent boom was deployed, in order to contain possible impacts.
Eversource states that on December 24th, a sheen was observed in the Charles River, emanating from the upstream (southwest) side of the Chestnut Street bridge, and additional absorbent and containment boom was “deployed to further contain and mitigate the release.”
When flood waters recede and the flow rate is reduced, Eversource says it plans to skim the PTC fluid from the surface water and/or deploy additional boom. It plans to remove the booms when the sheen and PTC fluid is sufficiently dissipated.
PTC fluid is used as an insulator and cooling medium in Eversource transmission lines that supply electricity to substations in congested areas. Eversource describes it as a fluid with low toxicity, and a “highly refined synthetic and dielectric fluid that does not contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)."
