Lincoln Journal
October 3, 2002

Letter: Juves responds to a Lincolnite

In the Sept.26 letter to the editor entitled "ShhAir urges resident activity," statements made by Jim Henderson of Safeguarding the Historic Hanscom Area's Irreplaceable Resources misrepresent the intent of the Environmental Status and Planning Report (ESPR).

In Massport's presentations to the local communities we have tried very hard not to characterize the moderate and high ranges as predictions. Our goal is to describe the possible scenarios in a manner as to facilitate an understanding of the range of potential future environmental effects.

As Mr. Henderson knows, the ESPR reports on airport activity retrospectively (activity which has occurred since the last environmental filing in 1995) as well as looking at the airport's future potential. The analysis of possible scenarios and associated aircraft fleet mixes is intended to provide the reader with a valuable tool when discussing what could happen at the airport - not necessarily what will happen or should happen. The range of future scenarios was developed to facilitate an understanding of potential environmental effects. The ESPR does not grant approvals nor does it replace the requirement for filing an Environmental Notification Form for projects which meet environmental thresholds.

Some interesting facts which Mr. Henderson neglects to mention in his letter are that the draft ESPR analysis concludes that:

- General aviation is forecast to remain the single largest category of aviation activity at Bedford, accounting for 90-percent to 91-percent of operations in the 2015 moderate growth to high growth range.

- Scheduled passenger operations range from three percent of aircraft activity in 2000, to eight or nine percent in the 2015 moderate to high growth analysis.

- Scheduled cargo operations range from 0.4 to 0.5 percent of 2015 moderate to high growth analysis.

- In 2002, only three to four percent of the peak hour vehicle traffic volumes along Route 2A would be airport related. In the analysis for future years, five to seven percent of morning peak hour traffic volumes on Route 2A would be airport related and eight to 15 percent of afternoon peak hour traffic volumes on Route 2A would be airport related.

Jose Juves
Director of Media Relations
Massachusetts Port Authority

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