A coalition of legal and advocacy groups, including the Conservation Law Foundation, announced at a press conference Thursday that they are suing the National Institutes of Health to halt construction of Boston University’s Level 4 Biosafety Laboratory in Roxbury.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the residents of Roxbury and the South End, claims the NIH violated the National Environmental Policy Act and failed to properly review the biolab proposal when it awarded $128 million to BU for the lab’s construction. The NIH and its director, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, are named as the defendants.
The coalition seeks “to stop all federal funding for this facility because NIH failed to perform the requisite environmental review, dismissed the potential environmental and public health risks and refused to consider sites located in less densely populated areas,” according to a Conservation Law Foundation press release.
According to the lawsuit, the institute “awarded a $128 million dollar grant to BU to build the Bio Lab,” which is federal tax money “budgeted under the Department of Homeland Security.”
At the press conference, Stop the Bioterrorism Lab Coalition Campaign Coordinator Klarre Allen, one of the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit, said BU officials resisted communication with the Roxbury community about the biolab’s construction.
“In 2002, we got an anonymous phone call telling us that we needed to go to a meeting,” Allen said. “We went and were told not to worry about the construction.
“We got another anonymous phone call that we should come to another meeting at BU, where we were surrounded by scientists” she continued. “We heard the words Ebola and [began to worry]. We just want a dialogue between BU scientists and our scientists.”
Allen said for four years, BU has “refused” to have that dialogue.
“We have 180 scientists around the country who say it shouldn’t be built,” she said.
However, Mark Klempner, BU Medical Campus Research Associate Provost, said in a statement that the approval process was “rigorous and thorough” and that the university “complied fully with all federal, state and local processes and procedures.”
BU Medical Center spokeswoman Ellen Berlin said the process included “240 community meetings to educate the public about the benefits and drawbacks of the lab,” in an April 24 article in The Daily Free Press.
Klempner said the biolab will be part of a “national network of research facilities to study infectious diseases that are of great public health importance.” Researchers will work to develop “tests, drugs, vaccines and treatments for emerging infectious diseases to find cures and save lives.”
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spokeswoman Kathy Stover said the lawsuit had been referred to the Justice Department and the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of General Counsel. She said she could not comment on pending litigation.
There are four Level 4 biolabs in the United States, but BU’s will be the first to be located in such a densely populated area.
The facility will be constructed over a 30-month period, which began in March. BU will own, manage and operate the laboratory.