By Jim O'Sullivan

A nine-year-old environmental study of the Calf Pasture Pump Station, the Boston Water and Sewer Commission-owned property on Columbia Point that UMass-Boston covets for a new technology center, has residents worried about health risks of re-developing the site, the Reporter learned this week.

Chemicals in the soil of the Calf Pasture pump station property "may pose an excess cancer risk" and "may present unacceptable risks to the general public," according to a 1994 report obtained by the Reporter. The study, conducted by Green Environmental, Inc., found "heavy metals" that "could lead to elevated blood levels in children inhaling and/or swallowing the dirt."

Jeanne Richardson of the BWSC said, "We're in compliance, we're in accordance with guidelines, based on how the site is used right now."

"There is contamination on the site," said Geoffrey Maye, senior project manager at Green Environmental, the Quincy-based environmental consulting firm. "Theoretically, it does prevent an exposure."

But Maye stressed that limited contact with the soil posed "no immediate, acute risk."

"Would I let my kid sit on that walkway and play there for the next 20 years? No," Maye said. "The current use is OK, it's the foreseeable future that you have to lock in."

"If people are just walking over that walkway, it's fine. If you want to play a game of football, that's different," Maye said.

David MacKenzie, vice chancellor for administration and finance at UMass, said the 1994 report was conducted during negotiations between UMass and BWSC to determine the fate of the property where the pump station had operated from 1968 to 1990. UMass hopes to use the 20,000-square foot property for a science and technology facility, while the BWSC hunts for an alternative site for its waste transfer building, a "de-watering" facility where waste is dried and packed.

"There are some contaminants, but it's not a serious issue," said MacKenzie. He said the study helped determine the price of the property.

"You had to discount for the cost of hazardous waste clean-up," MacKenzie told the Reporter Tuesday.

Paul Nutting, president of the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association, called the report, of which he said he had been unaware before Tuesday, "very alarming."

"I'm fairly outraged," said Rosanne Foley, environmental health coordinator for the Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition.

"That's serious," Foley said. "Heavy metals are something you don't fool around with."

The 1994 report finds that "dermal contact with soils from" near the north and east walls of the station" may pose an excess cancer risk." The northern boundary of the property, along which the Harbor Walk runs, contains metals that could lead to unhealthy blood levels in children, the report finds.

"The calculations and comparisons made to reach this conclusion assume that contaminant levels at the site will remain at their present levels for any future site uses. The designation of site soils under category S1 assumes that the site will be accessible to the general public, with no restrictions on land use," the report concludes.

For now, the site remains a BWSC property, until their search for a new property, which UMass's MacKenzie said has taken them to 18 rejected sites, succeeds. UMass aids BWSC in the hunt, which, officials from both institutions said, has been "frustrating." UMass officials, BWSC officials, and the heads of five area civic associations met in BC High President William Kemeza's office on September 18 to discuss the possibility of moving the sewage facility to a Freeport St. site near Morrissey Boulevard. Community opposition nixed the plan.

Civic leaders from Cedar Grove, Columbia-Savin Hill, Pope's Hill, Clam Point, and Port Norfolk met with the site's controllers and voiced reportedly vehement opposition to the prospect of a waste transfer facility at the state-owned Freeport St. site, which currently is used to house materials and trucks for the Massachusetts Water and Resources Authority (MWRA) and is operated by MassHighway.

"What we're going to do is we're going to listen to the community and not move forward with that particular location," Richardson said. "There was no support for it."

"Obviously, it's not something that anybody wants nearby," Nutting said. "And with all the work that Pope's Hill and Clam Point are trying to do to bring things to Morrissey Boulevard, this is something that would preclude other things from coming there."

MacKenzie said UMass and the BWSC's difficulties in finding a new spot for the facility have extended to 18 different sites that have been rejected.

"We haven't gotten number 19 yet," he said.

"Any community, I suspect, is going to be concerned about this, even though I don't think it's that big a deal," MacKenzie said.

Lou Pasquale, manager of nearby Phillips Old Colony House, said the facility's proximity to Morrissey and the highway could besmirch visitors' impressions of the neighborhood.

"Instead of seeing a nice, beautiful space, you're going to see a pump station, and it's: welcome to Dorchester," Pasquale said last week. Pasquale added that Phillips businesses, including the Ramada Inn, could suffer from a sewage facility near the premises.