Construction of a Boston University Biosafety Level-4 Laboratory in the South End will continue, even though the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court yesterday upheld a prior ruling that the final environmental impact report for the lab that is 70 percent complete was “arbitrary and capricious.”
BU will need a supplemental report to open the biolab, which will house Ebola, plague and anthrax, said the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
The Supreme Court ruling is a victory for South End residents who first challenged BU, the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Boston Medical Center, questioning the adequacy of both risk assessments and alternative location considerations for the lab. The Supreme Court decision upholds a 2006 Superior Court ruling.
The decision follows the Nov. 29 release of a report from the National Research Council calling a National Institutes of Health evaluation of the lab not “sound and credible.”
The court said the biolab’s final environmental impact report’s “evaluation of the ‘worst case’ scenario was significantly incomplete” and failed to consider the risks of testing highly contagious diseases in an urban setting. It also said BU not only failed to consider alternative locations for the lab, but did not explain why other sites would not be feasible.
The court also said the state did not conduct a thorough investigation of the reports before approving them.
“[BU hasn't] proven that there is no risk in our community. Any ‘what if’ should be taken care of before the facility is built,” said Klare Allen, community organizer for the Roxbury Safetynet and coordinator for the Stop the Bioterrorlab Coalition.
State Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs spokesman Robert Keough said the ruling is significant and shows that the lab is still under state environmental review, upholding Environmental Secretary Ian Bowles’s authority to conduct the investigation.
BU Medical Campus spokeswoman Ellen Berlin said the ruling is “part of the approval process. The process will continue.”
The university said in a statement, “The biosafety lab and the research it conducts will save and not endanger lives. We are confident that the additional environmental impact study will satisfy the court.”
