[CPEO-MEF] Consultants zero in on what's missing from environmental study

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Consultants zero in on what's missing from environmental study
By Barbara Forster / Correspondent
Wednesday, October 23, 2002

What's not in an environmental study prepared by Massport about Hanscom
Air Field was part of a presentation at Bedford Town Hall on Thursday,
Oct. 17.

Lisa Baci, the environmental consultant hired by the four Hanscom
communities to review the document, spent about an hour reviewing some
of the findings. Although Baci handed Massport a few compliments,
including ease of readability, better graphs and topic organization and
greater efforts to inventory sensitive (cultural) resources, she moved
quickly into a critique.

Future aviation activities that drive all analyses were high on the hit
list.

"The forecasts are seriously flawed," said Baci. "There are no
reasonable upper or lowers and the assumptions are unreasonable."

For example, Massport assumes that cargo carriers (which could be
introduced at Hanscom in 2005) will use the quietest planes available.

"But carriers currently have a much larger percentage of noisy planes
(than quieter ones) and Massport can't control what carriers use," added
Baci.

According to Baci, the existence of scenarios is problematic for the
communities. On one hand, the scenarios are hypothetical.

"But it is important to stress that these [scenarios] are also supposed
to be realistic," she said. "Some are already on the drawing board."

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.townonline.com/bedford/news/local_regional/bed_newbmhanscompnb10232002.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~