US says location of biolab is safe
Group criticizes South End site
A federal draft environmental review of Boston University Medical Center's proposed high-security biodefense laboratory says the facility as planned will be safe and have a negligible impact on the densely populated South End neighborhood around it.
However, a Boston-based environmental advocacy group is criticizing the review as inadequate for failing to seriously consider less-populated alternative sites for the biolab, which would research treatments and vaccines for lethal agents such as anthrax and botulism.
"They didn't do any review of alternative locations," said Carrie Schneider, a lawyer with the Conservation Law Foundation. "It's impossible to come out for it or against it without a full picture. But we are very concerned about this infectious disease lab being put into a very dense neighborhood."
Federal draft environmental impact statements typically include analyses of sites other than the main proposed location, to ensure that the facility is built in the most suitable place.
The draft document for the proposed National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory, prepared by consultants hired by BU, says that four alternatives were considered, but were abandoned as "technically unfeasible." Fort Point Associates of Boston said in the review that the alternatives provided no environmental advantage over the construction of the facility on the BU Medical Center campus. Only the medical campus site and a "no build" alternative were discussed in detail in the report.
Yesterday, a BU Medical Center spokeswoman said the proposed facility is in the most suitable place and indicated that a $128-million federal grant the center received was earmarked to build the facility only on the site originally proposed.
"That was one of the criteria," said Ellen Berlin, the spokeswoman. "We submitted a grant document to the federal government to build on land that we owned and in a place that was viable and appropriate."
Controversy has swirled around the lab proposal in the past year because of the deeply infectious nature of some of the agents that researchers will work on. There are four other such labs, called level four labs, in the country that are allowed to work with such agents, and BU and a new Texas lab would bring the number to six.
In particular, some groups have said it was unfair to put the lab in the South End, which has a high minority-group population and numerous industrial and other businesses.
The environmental review said that the project is similar in nature to others in the area and presents no great impacts.
The public can comment on the document, officially issued by the National Institutes of Health, through Jan. 3. A public meeting on the report will be held Nov. 10 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Faneuil Hall in Boston.
Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com. 