ESPR

Environmental Status and Planning Report

Logan Airport & Hanscom Field: Tale of Two Environmental Reports

Op Ed by Corinne Doud (MOF Bedford) & Valinda Chan (MOF East Boston), East Boston Times, 11/13/24 

MASSPORT’S HANSCOM & LOGAN 2022 ESPRs
Strong directives from EEA Secretary Tepper after MEPA review

Massport is required to submit Environmental Status and Planning Reports (ESPRs) every 5 years to MEPA (MA Office of Environmental Policy Act) for Logan and Hanscom, the top two busiest airports in New England.

In October, EEA Secretary Tepper issued Certificates of Compliance for the Hanscom and Logan ESPRs, which included surprisingly strong additional requirements. These new required reports turn up the heat on Massport.

HANSCOM ESPR 2022

On May 15th 2024, Massport submitted the 2022 L.G. Hanscom Field Environmental Status and Planning Report (2022 ESPR) to Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper. Read the full Hanscom ESPR here

In Secretary Tepper’s Certificate on the Hanscom ESPR (10/11/24), she directed Massport to provide a Supplemental ESPR – unprecedented in Hanscom’s history, to the area’s knowledge.  The rationale for the Supplemental ESPR is that, once the North Airfield developers file their SDEIR* (time unknown) on the proposed private jet hangar expansion, the new (currently-missing) information will need to be incorporated in a Supplemental ESPR to ensure the 2022 Hanscom ESPR’s accuracy.  [*SDEIR - Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Report].

Tepper’s Certificate also instructed Massport to improve their public outreach to environmental justice communities..

Read the full certificate here.

LOGAN ESPR 2022

Also in May 2024, Massport submitted the Logan International Airport Environmental Status and Planning Report (2022 ESPR) to Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper. Read the full Logan ESPR here

In Secretary Tepper’s Certificate on the Logan ESPR (10/18/24), she directed Massport to improve environmental and reporting performance to reduce Logan’s impacts and provided an extensive list of actions for Massport to take in the coming year. These included:

  • The creation of a new, user-friendly, real-time system of reporting impacts with built-in mitigation steps that would be automatically triggered as new thresholds are reached, and

  • The formation of a community working group for achieving desired outcomes in which Massport must participate.  

Both of these requirements reflect strong recommendations submitted in a 62-page public comment by Airport Impact Relief, Inc. (AIR Inc), a Logan-community area advocacy and research group.  

News Stories about ESPRs