Thursday, 4:30 PM
Lab opponents emboldened by court decision
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff
Savoring their first major victory after more than three years of battle, opponents of Boston University's high-security research laboratory pledged today to persist until they halt the project and called on leading political supporters of the facility to reverse their position.
The neighborhood activists whose lawsuit is prompting further environmental review of the lab and their attorney said they had no immediate plans to seek emergency court action to stop lab construction, which began in the South End earlier this year. And a university spokeswoman reiterated today that BU has no intention of voluntarily ceasing work on the $178 million facility, where scientists will hunt for drugs and vaccines against the world's deadliest germs, including smallpox, Ebola, and plague.
During a 50-minute press conference at Boston City Hall, the activists and three elected officials acknowledged that their court victory this week represented just one more skirmish in what they characterize as David-and-Goliath struggle to stop the Biosafety Level-4 lab.
"I know it was a hard fight for four years, but I'm glad that we stood up for each other," said Alma Feliciano, one of 10 residents who sued.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Ralph D. Gants ruled that earlier assessments of the environmental impacts of the lab failed to adequately consider alternative sites or weigh worst-case scenarios for release of viruses or bacteria. The judge urged BU to draft a new environmental report and to submit it the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
City Councilor Chuck Turner said during the press conference that BU's lab, as well as any future Level-4 labs, should be banned from the city. He charged that university officials as well as elected leaders in the city had been seduced by the promise of up to $1.6 billion in federal grants during the next two decades for research at the lab.
"The system has been corrupted by the lure of dollars and prestige," Turner said. "We have to understand that that is what has happened."
