Word: deqe
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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David Fierra, the deputy commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Quality Engineering (DEQE), sent letters Friday to MATEP officials and community residents asking their comments on another DEQE official's proposal to allow MATEP to install the engines...
...DEQE counsel recommended recently that the $175 million MATEP be allowed to install the diesels if it meets certain environmental conditions. This recommendation contradicts a January 1978 ruling by a DEQE hearing officer that MATEP's diesels--which may produce levels of nitrogen dioxide harmful to humans and animals--should not be installed...
Community groups are unhappy. They don't want any nitrogen dioxide--even amounts federal authorities have determined to be safe--floating into their backyards. The groups argue that after a DEQE hearing officer issued a decision, other officials shouldn't have chimed in. Michael Lambert, co-counsel for the Mission Hill residents, reflects the bottom line feelings; "Once Harvard gets the diesels in," he says, "they'll never take them down or shut them off." The community has visions of teeming hordes of Harvard-trained-and-hired lawyers streaming into courthouses, keeping the diesels running no matter how much nitrogen...
Some people, however, are pleased. The DEQE official who must make the final decision has used the conflicting recommendations of his colleagues as an excuse for further delaying his decision. Boston Edison, the company that supplies power to the medical area, is still taking in about $3 million a year. Edison, which has no desire to lose such business to MATEP, also holds the final trump. It's the only company that can provide backup for Harvard, but to do so, it must invest $10 or $15 million in an essential step-down station. Edison spokesmen smugly tell you that...
...Harvard and MATEP can literally not afford to let the project die. And until the diesels go in, no one will really know just how hazardous MATEP will be. The community says Harvard should have done its planning earlier; Harvard says the evidence is on its side. The DEQE commissioner, meanwhile, is damned if he says yes and damned if he says no. Either way, it looks like one group will take the other to court--and the MATEP saga will drone endlessly...