Boston Globe -- NorthWest section
November 10, 2005

Towns requesting Hanscom data
State petitioned on impact report

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

The state's top environmental officials are reviewing a petition filed by
legal counsel to the towns of Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln that
seeks an environmental impact report on a portion of Bedford's Hanscom Field
earmarked for an aviation services company.

In an Oct. 31 letter to Secretary of Environmental Affairs Stephen R.
Pritchard, John W. Giorgio of the Boston law firm Kopelman and Paige PC,
said Bedford's backup water supply could be threatened and Concord could be
endangered by a fuel storage tank if Crosspoint Aviation Services LLC is
permitted to build a 91,000-square-foot facility at the airfield.

The Woburn company wants to open the facility in the spring of 2007. It
would provide aircraft maintenance, fuel, and other services to aviation
clients.

Giorgio filed what is known as a fail-safe petition, named for a doctrine
that if no action is taken on a matter, there could be potential damages.

On Sept. 28, Pritchard rejected a request by an area activist group for an
environmental review of the proposed Crosspoint complex, saying the
development did not warramt such a review. A group called Safeguarding the
Historic Hanscom Area's Irreplaceable Resources had filed the request.

But the current action taken by the four towns surrounding the airport is
seen by activists opposing Hanscom's expansion as a get-tough stance, one
that could result in a lawsuit if Pritchard reiterates that there is no need
for an environmental study.

Anne Shapiro, chairwoman of the Concord Board of Selectmen, and Sheldon
Moll, a Bedford selectman, would only say that litigation has not yet been
discussed in a public forum. Both are members of the Hanscom Area Towns
Selectmen committee, which last month voted to bring the Boston law firm
into the picture.

The Massachusetts Port Authority, the airfield's owner-operator, is sticking
to its belief that all possible environmental hurdles had been cleared when
it selected Crosspoint in June to join two other similar companies,
Signature Flight Support and Jet Aviation, at the airp.

''Aviation development on [the proposed Crosspoint site] was reflected in
the 2000 Environmental Status and Planning Report, undertaken by Massport
through the auspices of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, and
thoroughly reviewed by the various boards and commissions of the four
towns," Massport spokesman Richard Walsh said earlier this week.

However, in his Oct. 31 letter to Pritchard, Giorgio wrote that the
Crosspoint proposal ''stated that the facility will be permitted and
developed in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal zoning
and building requirements."

In a brief telephone interview on Monday, Tim Sullivan, Crosspoint's
director of aviation services, said Giorgio quoted accurately from the
company's plans. ''But the land is owned by Massport and is exempt from the
zoning regulations of the four towns," he claimed.

Shapiro disagreed, maintaining, as did Giorgio in his petition, that local
permitting governs so-called Zone II public water supply areas and fuel
storage tanks.

The Crosspoint facility would be built near one of Bedford's backup aquifers
that is located on Concord land near Hartwell Road. Close by is Concord's
Virginia Road neighborhood.

Moll said the town is mostly served by the Massachusetts Water Resources
Authority and a few wells. He said the town had built a Hartwell Road
pumping station to reduce the amount of iron and manganese in the well
water.

''We're now trying to bring it back on line," he said of the pumping
station.

© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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