Letter: HATS seeks citizen help

Wednesday, August 7, 2002

Massport recently released an Environmental Status and Planning Report (ESPR) for Hanscom Airport. The Hanscom Area Towns' (Bedford, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln) Committee (HATS) and its Environmental Subcommittee (HATS ES) are looking for citizens who can help in reviewing Massport's future plans for growing the airport.

Citizens can play a critical role in ensuring that this planning process for Hanscom Airport reflects local issues and concerns and utilizes the best available data and techniques. The contributions made by local citizens during the previous Hanscom environmental review five years ago resulted in a number of changes including the development of better approaches to evaluate noise impacts on residents in the Hanscom area as well as at other Massachusetts airports.

HATS will employ technical consultants but is also forming citizen task forces to assist it in reviewing specific areas of the ESPR, including: Noise, aviation (forecasts, airport planning), traffic, natural resources (air quality, wetlands/wildlife/water resources, hazardous materials/waste management, environmental management systems), cultural/historical resources, and land use planning.

These citizen task forces will: Review relevant sections of the ESPR (and background documents) and comment on questions and issues for further review by Massport and HATS consultants; review and comment on material prepared by Massport and HATS consultants; assist, where needed, in locating background information or data useful to HATS in responding to the ESPR; and attend, if possible, some local technical workshops and hearings on the ESPR tentatively scheduled, for September, October, and November.

Anyone interested in helping out the ESPR review process should email or call Richard Canale, HATS ES Co-Chair (r.canale@rcn.com, 781-861-0287). Please indicate the topic area(s) of interest to you.

Massport will be posting the Executive Summary of the ESPR on its Web site at http://www.massport.com. A copy of Massport's overview presentation on the ESPR is available on the Web at: http://www.shhair.org/Articles/Hanscom_ESPR_062702%20PDF.pdf. Copies of the entire Draft ESPR should be available by mid-August in the town offices and libraries of each of the four HATS communities.

Richard Canale, co-chairman

Hanscom Area Towns
Environmental Subcommittee

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