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EPA EXPRESSES CONCERN ABOUT IMPACTS FROM PROPOSED REUSE OF WEYMOUTH AIR STATION

Release Date: 08/17/1999
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office (617-918-1008)

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today issued a letter to federal officials expressing strong reservations about the proposed redevelopment of the former Weymouth Naval Air Station for a major shopping mall/office complex that would be one of the largest of its kind in New England.

Citing traffic impacts, inadequate water supplies and various other concerns, EPA's New England Administrator John P. DeVillars called on the U.S. Navy, which owns the property, to demonstrate how environmental impacts from the project will be managed to avoid massive traffic tie-ups on Routes 3 and 18 and overburdening already stressed water supplies in Weymouth, Rockland and Abington.

DeVillars' concerns were outlined in a letter and an attachment that EPA prepared as part of its formal review of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that the Navy prepared for the reuse plan. The public comment period on the DEIS ended today.

"What we now know about the traffic, water and other impacts was not available to the host communities when they developed the reuse plan," DeVillars said. "I am sure they will be the first to agree these problems need to be resolved before, not after, they occur."

"We remain concerned that full implementation of the plan without effective mitigation will cause significant adverse environmental impacts," said DeVillars, in a five-page letter to Robert K. Ostermueller of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Lester, Pa. "The goals of the final reuse plan should only be pursued if they can be obtained without sacrificing environmental quality and the well-being of those who live and work in the host communities and the region at large."

Situated on 1,450 acres in Weymouth, Abington and Rockland, the former Naval Air Station is targeted for a two-million-square-foot "Super" retail mall, 1.4 million square feet of business/research and development space, 500-700 units of senior housing, an 18-hole public golf course and 100,000 square feet of institutional space. The development would use roughly half of the property, with 738 acres remaining as open space.

DeVillars cited various shortcomings in the DEIS, particularly in terms of its traffic analysis, water supply evaluation and air quality assessment. Given those shortcomings, he raised the following concerns:

• Drinking Water Supplies: Project proponents have no confirmed source of water to support the needs of the proposed development. The project (not including the golf course) would use an estimated 441,500 gallons of water a day, more than five times the daily demand when the property was used as an air station. (Including the golf course, daily demand during summer months would be as high as 741,500 gallons a day.) The lack of a water supply is especially troublesome given that the City of Weymouth has routinely exceeded the safe yield for its water supplies by more than 250,000 gallons a day. The City is currently under a state consent order requiring it to find a new source for additional water by 2002.

• Traffic Impacts: The DEIS fails to describe how the roadway network, including Route 3, can handle the additional traffic that the development will generate. Many of the roads surrounding the property are already over burdened, particularly Route 3. Just south of Route 18, for example, Route 3 handles 108,000 car trips a day, including northbound and southbound traffic, and is over capacity for extended periods during commuter rush hours. The retail component of the reuse plan alone would add about 41,000 daily trips, including north and south traffic, to this already congested road.

• Air Quality Impacts: EPA criticized the DEIS for downplaying the negative air quality impacts the project would cause. Pollution emissions would increase significantly due to the dramatic upswing in base-related traffic. For example, nitrogen oxide emissions from base-related traffic would jump 26-fold - from 15 tons a year to 397 tons a year. Emissions from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) would see a 19-fold increase - from 10 tons a year to 174 tons a year. Nitrogen oxides and VOCs are both key contributors to the formation of smog, a major public health problem in Massachusetts.

Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Navy is required to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) analyzing the environmental effects of the redevelopment of the former air station before it turns over the land to the communities. The Navy also must demonstrate whether and how the impacts can be effectively mitigated and by whom. EPA's role under NEPA is to advise the Navy of the adequacy of the EIS and the environmental acceptability of the project.