The Power Plant: Struggles Continue

The battle lines are drawn and the strategies set as Harvard moves ahead with the building of the Medical Area Power Plant despite legal tangles and the efforts of power plant opponents to further stall construction.

The stakes are high--the plant will cost in excess of $110 million and a one-year delay in construction could add as much as $7 million to that bill. Legal delays have already taken their toll on the facility, putting construction at least one-year behind schedule, L. Edward Lashman, director of external projects, said last week.

Harvard suffered a major setback in January when the Department of Environmental Quality Engineering (DEQE) handed down a ruling prohibiting installation of the facility's diesel generators because of possible air pollution problems. The University has, however, enjoyed a string of recent victories in the courts. In addition, construction is now 50-to-60 per cent complete--and that disturbs many power plant opponents who believe that the further Harvard progresses with construction, the harder it will be to ultimately stop the plant from going into operation.

The Medical Area Total Energy Plant (MATEP) was designed to provide steam, chilled water and electricity at a savings to the Medical School and other medical institutions in the area. Harvard officials have said in the past that the economic feasibility of the plant hinges on its ability to generate electricity. Harvard has put forward $50 million for the facility, but has not yet assessed the possible losses should the electric generators be completely rejected, Lashman said.

The largest challenge facing University officials and attorneys this fall is the appeal of the DEQE decision prohibiting the generators. In the Oct. 16 appeal hearing, Hearing Officer Ellyn Weiss will review the DEQE decision and other evidence presented by Harvard, the DEQE, and neighborhood groups opposed to the power plant. The selection of Weiss--a former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts who now has a private practice in Washington, D.C.--was in itself something of a victory for Harvard. University attorneys claimed earlier this year that the original hearing officer, Assistant State Atty. Gen. Charles Corkin, Jr., was biased against them. Corkin at first refused to step down as hearing officer, but did so later when Harvard went to court to seek his removal from the position. Lashman said University officials "are very happy" with the selection of Weiss as hearing officer.

The Oct. 16 hearing will be the last appeal within the DEQE; appeals of that hearing would then enter the courts. Harvard, in fact, already has a suit on file in the Suffolk Country Superior Court in case the appeal decision goes against Harvard.

In addition to the DEQE appeal hearing, a trial that may test the DEQE's power to impose certain prohibitions on construction is also slated for this fall. The DEQE has approved the portions of the power plant designed to produce steam and chilled water, but prohibited installation of the diesel generators. University counsels interpret these decisions as permitting installation of all the components of the power plant other than the generators.

The DEQE, however, ruled on June 29 that in addition to the generators themselves, other items relating to the electricity generators could not be installed. These items include piping, ducting and storage facilities. A trial in the Suffolk Country Superior Court will test this case on its merits on September 19. Until then, Harvard has a temporary injunction restraining the DEQE or the state Attorney General's Office from enforcing the decision.

Lashman said last week that Harvard will continue installing items in compliance with the law. Thomas Bracken, an attorney for a Brookline community group opposed to the power plant, said Harvard officials have given him a verbal agreement that they will not install the disputed items until the trial resolves the issue. Lashman, however, said he knew of no such agreement.

This conflict points to an issue crucial to the power plant controversy: Harvard argues that it must continue construction at a fast rate or costs will skyrocket, while power plant opponents fear that the extensive construction only serves to strengthen the University's case for a reversal of the DEQE decision. Bracken said University officials involved with the construction "are moving ahead as fast as they possibly can--the more they put in, the more difficult it will be to stop them."Mission Hill residents last April delivered a petition against the Medical School Area power plant to President Bok.