Power Plant Opponents Question Impact Study

Residents of Mission Hill and a Boston Edison official questioned Harvard officials and consultants for the Medical Area Service Corporation (MASCO) intensely for two hours last night on the fine points of a draft impact statement on a proposed MASCO power plant.

The hearing, conducted jointly by the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Mission Hill Planning Commission was the third of three hearings on a draft environmental impact statement filed by the BRA several months ago on the plant.

That statement said that the projected $56 million power plant, which would supply power to Harvard Medical School and related institutions in the area, would have title impact on its surroundings.

At the beginning of the meeting. Robert Kenney director of the BRA, told the crowd of about 75 people gathered at the Mission Hill American Legion Post that a Chapter 121A hearing will be held on the power plant. August 26, at Boston State College.

A chapter 121A agreement allows a corporation to build a tax exempt project if the corporation can show that the area that the project is to be built in is blighted, open, decadent or substandard.

If the BRA gives MASCO a 121A designation then under Mass state law MASCO would be allowed to construct the power plant.

Daniel Pincus, project director of the plant for the Environmental Research and Technology Co., the firm that conducted the environmental study and engineering and architectural consultants on the plant, answered questions raised at the last hearing held July 9.

More Questions

They then answered questions from the floor about oil consumption, reliability, visual and environmental pollution and alternatives to the plant.

John J. Murphy, assistant steam sales manager of Boston Edison, asked several questions about possible discrepancies in the draft environmental report's tabulation of total environmental pollution to be caused by the plant.

John Grady, a resident of Mission Hill. questioned the project's design in the area of neighborhood safety, and asked that the finances of the power plant be explained.

Edward Laschman, Harvard's director of external projects, said the plant would be owned by a subsidiary of First National City Bank of New York and leased to MASCO