Alarm sounded on Hanscom growth
Hearing tonight as study predicts air, noise impact

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 11/7/2001

As the last of a series of public meetings convenes in Bedford tonight on a draft of a 2005-2015 Hanscom Field environmental impact study, area officials are praising the hearing process while voicing concerns about the effects of increased commercial aviation and corporate jet activity.

This pivotal 10th meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Bedford Town Hall. It is key because an administrator of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, William Gage, will be answering questions about the preliminary study, which covers everything from water and air quality to the effects of aviation on the region's cultural and historical landmarks.

The public comment period on the study's draft will end on Nov. 15. A month later, the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs is expected to issue a certificate, indicating whether any changes have to be made by the Massachusetts Port Authority, owner-operator of Hanscom. Massport has retained a consultant, Rizzo Associates of Boston, for the environmental study under an $850,000 contract.

By the middle of next year, Massport will submit a final environmental status planning report to the state environmental affairs office, which requires a report to be filed every five years on Hanscom.

The current study is different from 1995's in that commercial aviation and corporate jet activity were not significant factors seven years ago. Shuttle America, which now operates as US Airways Express, landed at Hanscom in September 1999. And corporate jet operations have only picked up speed since Sept. 11 of last year.

Some municipal leaders in Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln (portions of each town fall within the confines of the airfield), are now charging that Massport, in its 2005-2015 draft, is minimizing the future impact that revved-up aviation activities will have on air quality, noise levels, and roadways, among other quality-of-life issues.

And only Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act administrators, these leaders said, can correct matters by putting some teeth in new regulations so that possible environmental damage can be lessened.

''If they can get past Massport's obfuscations, that is,'' Lexington Selectman Peter Enrich asserted.

If the study draft is indeed scrutinized, one item that should be deleted immediately is the proposed introduction of cargo flights, said Enrich, who is also chairman of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission. ''Cargo flights are out of line with the historic use of the airport,'' he said.

Massport also needs to view Hanscom as the site ''of what I call `casual aviation,''' or one of limited operations, said Lisa Baci of Lexington, technical consultant to the Hanscom Area Towns Committee, made up of officials from the four communities.

A Massport spokesman, Richard Walsh, said Enrich and others ''need to share all their concerns with Bill Gage'' at this evening's meeting.

Massport is projecting as many as 65 daily commercial flights in 2005 and 85 in 2015. Also, there could be as many as 36,114 corporate and charter flights at Hanscom in 2005 and 54,961 operations in 2015.

This story ran on page N1 of the Boston Globe on 11/7/2001.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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