Safety of Public Open Spaces
A letter printed in the Globe today, in response to the latest electrocutions of dogs in Boston, points to the scope of the problems that endanger us and our pets in public spaces ("NStar is only part of problem"). Monica Ponce de Leon, Associate Professor of Architecture at Harvard University explains that there are no safety standards regulating construction work in public open spaces comparable to the safety standards to which workers are held accountable in the construction of buildings.
We have safety mechanisms that protect the public from faulty work in the construction of buildings; not so for the construction of our streets. When we build a home, a business, or even a public building, electricians must be certified and comply with drawings designed by engineers. Moreover, their work is reviewed by Inspectional Services before completion and the spaces can be occupied. Not so in our public spaces.
Ponce de Leon commends Boston City Councilor and mayoral candidate, Maura Hennigan, for introducing a bill that addresses these issues.
Here in Somerville, Aldermen Dennis Sullivan (At Large) and Robert Trane (Ward 7) recently submitted an order
that the Superintendent of Lights and Lines immediately survey all roadways for possible electrical shocks to pedestrians or animals, and work with the utility to immediately rectify any problems (Agenda for the Board of Aldermen Meeting, March 10, 2005).
With all due respect to Aldermen Sullivan and Trane (and I do respect them) for their initiative, if the claims made in the letter in today's Globe are true for Somerville, and there are no standards in place to insure that future work is completed with regard to public safety, the risk to residents and our pets may not be mitigated by surveying and rectifying existing problems.
If these claims are true, I'm going to think twice whenever I have to cross a bridge. -Canis Major
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More in Today's Globe on the danger of stray electrical current on our public ways.
Shocked into action: In the wake of the electrocution of a grad student, N.Y. got tough on utilities to curb stray voltage
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | March 22, 2005
From Las Vegas to Baltimore and Boston, stray electric current has killed or injured dozens of dogs during the past few years.
The incidents, including several in Boston neighborhoods, have prompted growing concern about the dangers lurking below ground and focused new scrutiny on the utility industry.
But only in New York — where at least three dogs and a carriage horse were electrocuted — have officials stopped pointing fingers and joined forces to control stray voltage.
It took a human life for that to happen.
In January 2004, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Columbia University was fatally shocked when she stepped onto a service box while walking her dogs in the East Village. The box and its metal cover became electrified by a temporary cable that had not been properly capped and insulated by Consolidated Edison, the New York utility giant.
A year later, under pressure from the New York Legislature, the state agency that oversees utilities adopted regulations to address leaky voltage, which for years had jolted dogs, who are more vulnerable than humans because they do not wear rubber-soled shoes for protection.
x The new rules in New York are possibly the strictest in the country. The regulations force utilities to conduct annual stray-voltage tests on all equipment accessible to the public, such as service boxes, manholes, traffic signals, and municipally owned street lights to which they supply power. If stray electric current is found, the facilities must be guarded and repaired within 45 days.
‘‘There were a series of incidents of shocked pets, some fatal, some not. Looking back, that should have been the big alarm that something was wrong,’’ said Michael N. Gianaris, a New York state assemblyman who introduced legislation to require Con Ed to conduct annual inspections of service boxes and manhole covers and to report the findings. ‘‘We like to believe that our utilities are performing the kind of maintenance to make us safe. But unfortunately, in New York, that was not happening and it resulted in the death of a woman who was walking a dog down the street.’’
Under the regulations, approved in December by the New York Public Service Commission, utilities must keep detailed records and publicly release their findings. Earnings reductions are threatened if companies do not comply. And New York City’s Department of Transportation is required to inspect 250 randomly selected sites every year.
Dog-shocking incidents in places such as Boston, Baltimore, and Las Vegas also have prompted widespread inspections and, in some cases, upgrades to infrastructure. Still, there are no requirements to do this kind of maintenance and inspection for stray voltage on an annual basis.
That makes Jennifer Bowman nervous.
It took only five seconds for electricity to race through her 45-pound Belgian shepherd and throw him down on the slick, cold sidewalk in Baltimore last November. The dog, Roy, died near an electrified utility box, sniffing around for a spot to do his business. Another dog had been electrocuted on the same street the year before.
Despite the replacement of city lampposts in her neighborhood near Johns Hopkins University, Bowman refuses to take her new dog, a blue tick beagle, anywhere near the sidewalks.
‘‘This should be a wake-up call that city streets are not safe,’’ Bowman said. ‘‘Next time it won’t be a dog.’’
In Boston, a joint task force commissioned to address the stray-voltage problem met for the first time last week — almost five years after a dog was electrocuted when it stepped on a manhole cover in the South End.
Since then, two other dogs have been fatally shocked, including a year-old Boxer that was killed this month by electricity leaking from an old NStar lamppost site on Western Avenue in Allston.
‘‘This is not an issue that is just confined to Boston or the electric company here,’’ said NStar spokesman Michael Durand. ‘‘We are looking at similar issues coming up in other states and around the world.’’
In recent months, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly has criticized the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy, saying it has failed to aggressively monitor NStar’s safety and reliability records.
Durand said the company is committed to helping to solve the stray-voltage problem. A DTE spokesman said the agency is planning to hire an independent consultant to audit an NStar voltage report that was ordered last year by the state. That report showed ‘‘99.9-plus percent’’ of the 24,000 manhole covers NStar checked in Boston and the surrounding suburbs had no stray voltage that could harm dogs or people.
But Roger Lane says New York thought its underground infrastructure was safe — until his daughter, Jodie, the Columbia student, was electrocuted last year.After her death, Con Ed inspected its entire system and repaired stray voltage at 176 locations in underground structures and 1,265 city-owned street lights to which Con Ed supplies power.
Still, the shocks have persisted. Over the past year, New Yorkers — from an alert doorman on Fifth Avenue to a professional dog-walker in Brooklyn Heights — have reported about a dozen instances of shocked dogs.
"I would have never thought that somebody could walk down the street and be at risk from electricity from light posts or other utilities," Lane said. "This will happen elsewhere. It’s only a matter of time."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson at globe dot com.
via Boston Dogs
Posted by: Canis Major | March 22, 2005 3:11 PM