NAHANT — Several Nahant residents boarded a bus to the Massachusetts State House Tuesday morning to support a bill that would change a law that enables religious and education nonprofits to bypass local environmental regulations.
An act to prevent nonprofit institutions from avoiding wetlands or natural resource protections under the so-called Dover Amendment, proposed by State Rep. Peter Capano (D-Lynn) and State Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn), went before the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government at the State House Tuesday.
“The Dover Amendment is old,” said Capano. “This really has to do with bringing it into the 21st Century. When they did the Dover Amendment, the intention was good. It was so cities and towns didn’t discriminate against nonprofits. But it was 1950 and, at that time, there weren’t a lot of concerns about the environment.”
The Dover Amendment states that no zoning ordinance or bylaw shall regulate or restrict the use of land or structures for religious or educational purposes. It allows nonprofit educational and religious entities in the state to be exempt from local zoning rules that would restrict other property owners from building in environmentally-sensitive areas.
The proposed bill would subject these properties to wetlands and natural resource area protections.
“We’re trying to give cities and towns the ability to have those types of environmental measures not be overruled by big institutions,” said Capano. “This would be helpful in Nahant, where Northeastern wants to build a 60,000-square-foot facility on East Point and, according to Nahant’s bylaws, it’s a natural resource district.”
About 50 Nahant residents boarded a bus at the Lowland Parking Lot shortly after 9 a.m. to show support for the bill at the State House Tuesday.
“We respect the intent of the Dover Amendment, but in the seven decades since its inception, environmental issues have dramatically escalated and we feel it is important to take steps to help preserve important ecosystems in all of our communities across the commonwealth,” said Jeffrey Musman, a member of the Nahant Preservation Trust.
The Keep Nahant Wild movement, which is a commitment to the conservation of Nahant’s open space, marine and wildlife habitats, natural resources and conservation areas, is an arm of the Nahant Preservation Trust. Keep Nahant Wild has been vocal about its opposition to the expansion of the Northeastern University Marine Science Center in Nahant.
“We wholeheartedly support these institutions, we just would like to see any institution who is engaged in building honor the wetlands bylaws and natural resource zoning protections put in place to help preserve our cities and towns,” said Musman.
Northeastern University wants to build a 55,000-square-foot building at the Marine Science Center. It would be used for academic, research and meeting spaces. There is also a proposal to upgrade the school’s seawater intake system. Both proposals have been met with heavy opposition from residents.
The university filed an Environmental Notification Form (ENF) with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office in May requesting a review of its plans. The office is part of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA).
The ENF outlines Northeastern’s plans to begin construction this winter. The project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2021. In-water work is expected to occur in July 2020.
The existing bunker will be used as the new building’s foundation to limit the footprint and preserve open space. About 18,000 square feet would be buried underground. Above ground, more than 19,000 square feet will sit on the western side of Murphy Bunker and more than 17,650 square feet on the eastern portion.
The proposal is to upgrade to a 600-gallon-per-minute system, which is 75 percent less capacity than what the school requested last year. The existing intake pipes are significantly impacted by marine organisms, namely blue mussels, settling and fastening themselves to the interior of the pipes, which restricts the flow of water to less than 25 percent of design capacity, according to the document. The system is designed to have a flow rate of about 550 gallons-per-minute per pump, but it has been reduced to as low as 78 gallons per minute.
Pipes would extend about 400 feet from the seawall into Bathing Beach Cove.
Northeastern calculated that about five market-sized lobsters would be killed by the system per year. To mitigate the issue, the plan includes the construction of an onsite lobster hatchery to annually raise and release lobster larvae into the water.
A component of the project, using a portion of the seawater flow to cool or heat the new building, was removed from the proposal.
“We believe the new design reflects a consensus approach that will safeguard the unique character, beauty and natural resources of East Point,” the university wrote in its letter to residents. “That has been our goal as a valued partner in Nahant for the last 50 years, and so it will remain going forward.”
Capano said he has received “hundreds” of emails and calls about the project, and told members of the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government that the project will damage an ecological preserve and habitat for protected birds. He won a loud ovation from Nahant residents following his testimony.
