Deed from 1960 Indicates Mass. Owns Wedge Lot Impacting Weaver’s Cove

Today, a Fall River, Mass. citizen filed documents with FERC alleging that a parcel of land known as the “wedge lot” and considered necessary to the proposed Weaver’s Cove LNG terminal is actually owned by the State of Massachusetts.  Weaver’s Cove had asserted to FERC that title to the land was unknown because the previous owner went bankrupt over 40 years ago and there was no discernible chain of title after that.  Because the wedge lot is within the exclusion zones required by the Department of Transportation for LNG terminals, Weaver’s Cove must demonstrate site control (either by title, lease or otherwise) over the wedge lot in order to build its proposed terminal.  Weaver’s Cove filed with the Department of Transportation to request a waiver from the exclusion zone requirements, asserting that the land was unclaimed property and therefore site control was not possible.  However, David Frederick, an individual citizen from Fall River, located and filed with FERC a deed dated April 8, 1960, in which it appears the Massachusetts Department of Public Works took title to the land on March 15, 1960, in order to construct a highway.  The documents can be found in the FERC eLibrary in Docket No. CP04-36.

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