Power Plant Pollution May Exceed Limits

Pollution from Harvard's $110 million power plant project would be "a serious health danger to sensitive individuals," an assistant professor at the School of Public Health (SPH) testified yesterday at an environmental hearing.

Stanley V. Dawson, assistant professor of Environmental Health Engineering at SPH, testified that the plant's expected emissions of the pollutant nitrogen dioxide are twice what the upper limit should be.

Dawson reviewed several scientific experiments showing that levels of nitrogen dioxide above 200 micrograms per cubic meter will aggravate lung ailments in asthmatics, and possibly in children and the elderly.

L. Edward Lashman, director of external projects, said last week the level of nitrogen dioxide in Boston's air already rises above 200 micrograms per cubic meter several days each year. Lashman said Harvard promised earlier this year to operate the plant so that the level would not exceed 400 micrograms. He added he thought that was a safe limit.

Boston community groups opposed to the construction of the plant, now more than half completed, introduced statistics at the state hearing yesterday showing that the plant is located in an area with a very high proportion of children and elderly residents.

Because of the large number of hospitals near the plant site, more than 12 per cent of all the babies born in Massachusetts are born within a kilometer of the plant. In addition, 27 per cent of the residents of the neighboring town of Brookline are over 60 years old.

Testimony in the hearings, part of Harvard's appeal of a state ruling prohibiting diesels in the plant, will probably continue through November. The state will probably announce its final decision in January