Biolab lawsuit leads to new environmental Review
South End News
February 9, 2007
A more in-depth environmental review of the BioLab, currently being conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Boston University Medical Center (BUMC) as part of federal court proceedings, will consider the hypothetical risks of placing the BioLab in either Tyngsborough or Peterborough, N.H., according to court filings.
This environmental review will also examine several hypothetical worst-case scenarios that weren’t addressed in previous reviews of the BioLab project. New worst-case scenarios considered will include the hypothetical infection of a laboratory worker with Ebola; the transportation of tick-born encephalitis; an aerosol event involving a hemorrhagic fever; and the use of recombinant DNA (rDNA) research of monkey pox.
The BioLab, as it’s commonly known, refers to the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) currently under construction on Albany Street in the South End. Specifically, the NEIDL would contain a high level Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4) laboratory that would study dangerous pathogens and diseases such as Ebola and anthrax. The Albany Street building would also house lower security BSL2 and BSL3 laboratories.
BUMC received a $128 million grant from the NIH in 2003 to construct and operate the BioLab, and received final NIH approval to move ahead with the project in February 2006. However, in May 2006, 10 South End and Roxbury residents sued the NIH, arguing it failed to fully comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. An argument at the center of the lawsuit is that the NEPA review failed to fully consider worst-case scenarios. The original Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) studied the hypothetical aerosol release of anthrax. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit also argued that the NEPA review didn’t consider alternative, less populated, sites for constructing the BioLab.
At a court hearing in December, lawyers for the NIH and BUMC agreed to conduct a further environmental review of the BioLab that would consider more worst-case scenarios and alternative sites.
According to court filings, this review is expected to be complete by April. It will be treated as a supplement to the FEIS, per NEPA regulations, initiating a process that will include public meetings and the acceptance of public comments.
In addition, BUMC and the NIH are working with plaintiffs in the lawsuit to ensure public participation in the upcoming process. Plaintiffs have filed with the court suggested guidelines outlining methods for notifying the public of meetings and rules for conducting hearings, among other things.
Chris Orchard, South End News