The Lincoln Journal
January 24, 2002

State to guide Massport’s study of Hanscom Air Field

By Barbara Forster, Correspondent

The state’s top environmental agency has decided which trends the Massachusetts Port Authority will study at Hanscom Field this year.

Last month the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs issued a certificate for the scope of the 2000 Environmental Status and Planning Report for Hanscom.

Overall, community reaction is positive. " We were taken seriously and we did gain some points, " said Julian Bussgang, co-chairman of the environmental subcommittee set up by the Hanscom Area Towns Committee.

" Certainly I think that they are alerted to some of the issues (with which we are concerned), " he added.

Massport’s reaction is that the scope is " consistent " with what was proposed. " Some things are expanded, " said Richard Walsh, " but we’re happy with what we have. "

In November, Jay Wickersham, director of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office, conducted a public hearing on the draft scope.

" He certainly praised the Noise Work Group and I think that he and the MEPA staff did get insights from their recommendations and the presentation explaining them, " said Bussgang.

MEPA staff, Massport, and the Noise Work Group then had a joint meeting following the hearing.

Although the towns did get more than Massport originally defined as study subjects, they didn’t get everything they wanted, such as a shorter window of study regarding the environmental impacts of aviation activity. Massport will analyze the impacts out as far as 2015; the towns had targeted 2010.

The scope outlines the issues Massport must report on, analyze and forecast. Massport makes the initial proposal of what is to be studied, then MEPA decides what the agency will do.

Formerly named the Generic Environmental Impact Review, the report is designed to present an overview of current environmental conditions at the field and use the information to determine policies and programs.

Traffic studies will include the intersection of Old Bedford Road and Route 62 in addition to 13 intersections Massport proposed, and then some.

Massport is to identify and evaluate the study area intersections at which Hanscom traffic " contributes 10 percent or more to the existing traffic volumes on any intersection approach. "

" The 10-percent threshold is hard to track, " said Walsh.

However, the directive is partly a " Catch-22 " situation. " Unless you study them (the intersections), you don’t know which ones are more than 10 percent, " said Bussgang.

Nevertheless, Walsh says that Massport will fulfill the requirement and incorporate traffic studies done by the Air Force and the Massachusetts Highway Department into the analysis.

Massport also has to identify which, if any, of the projects in the five-year capital improvement program would require individual MEPA review. Any new Federal Aviation Administration or Massport security policies that would affect environmental impacts relating to physical facilities or air field operations must be described, too.

The scope includes the Noise Work Group’s recommendations to use more noise metrics. The additional metrics are Single Event Level Distribution — this is already in Massport’s annual noise report for Hanscom — and a ranked tabulation of take-off noise levels for different classes of aircraft and the numbers of operations for each class. Another model for noise contour levels and data from the six permanent noise monitoring stations will be in the ESPR, too.

Air quality analysis is beefed up with a report on measures to reduce on-site emissions from all sources such as fuel handling, ground service equipment, and building heating and cooling.

Information about increased efforts to recycle and to reduce toxic materials also will be reported.

Massport is instructed to describe " efforts to resolve their differences with " Minute Man National Historical Park. A section of the scope noted the agency’s concern with " roadway improvements that would adversely affect " the national park and states that any proposed work in the national park " would be subject to policies require findings of no feasible alternatives and no net loss of parkland. "

" We’ve been consistent that we would not propose to widen the road, " said Walsh. " We’ve said that we wouldn’t do that. "

The scope also spells out the community involvement process including up to 10 technical workshops and a MEPA hearing for the draft document and up to two public meetings and another MEPA hearing on the final document.

Massport has been asked to make the document available on paper and on CD-ROM format and to put key summary information on its Web site, too.

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