The agency declared that the asbestos-polluted site where W.R. Grace and Company houses construction products, at 62 Whittemore Avenue, poses no “immediate or long-term” threat to the surrounding Alewife neighborhood — as long as the site remains undisturbed. At the same time, the agency offered no opinion on whether Grace, which wants to build a hotel and office complex on the site, should do so. The EPA decision came after officials had collected 50 samples from the top three inches of soil at the Grace property last September (see “Cambridge’s Asbestos Field,” TJI, News and Features, August 3, 2000). Tests had shown asbestos levels of 0.02 percent in the surface soil. The EPA considers a concentration of one percent to be a potential health threat.

Because of its findings, the EPA does not plan to launch any clean-up efforts at the 27-acre site, which includes fields, parking lots, and the worldwide headquarters of Grace Performance Chemicals — or at the city-owned baseball and soccer fields next door.

“We see this as a welcome conclusion,” says Andrew Spejewski, the spokesperson for the EPA’s New England office in Boston. “Neighbors can now rest assured that living near the Grace site is safe.”

But residents — particularly the Alewife Neighbors, a local group dedicated to overseeing such tests — are far from reassured by the EPA findings. Says Michael Nakagawa of Alewife Neighbors: “Our concerns are still there because the asbestos is still there. The EPA has done nothing to address [either].”

Just last week, in fact, a consultant for the Alewife Neighbors completed a review of the EPA’s preliminary data — on which the EPA has based its March 19 decision — that conflicted with the agency’s conclusions. Geologists at the Westford-based GeoInsight found that, despite the low percentages of asbestos, the hazardous material was “consistently detected” in 27 out of 28 samples — or in 96 percent of the EPA samplings. In addition, geologists unearthed problems with the two methods used by the EPA to detect asbestos. One technique, for instance, failed to identify microscopic fibers; the other failed to quantify them.

The Alewife group, Nakagawa explains, had hoped that the EPA would consider the GeoInsight review when issuing its final analysis — and would order Grace to abandon its development plans for the site. Grace had put the project on hold last summer after previous tests revealed that the site contains anywhere from 600,000 to 1.2 million pounds of asbestos, buried six inches below the ground.

Now that the EPA has announced its decision, the Alewife group fears that Grace will use the findings to its advantage. “We’re worried this will become a green light for Grace to go ahead with construction,” Nakagawa says.

Spejewski insists that the EPA’s decision “is in no way meant to give the go-ahead to Grace.” Nor should it be seen as a slight to the GeoInsight review. Says Spejewski, “Their points are accurate, but they don’t change the fundamental conclusions about the health risks on this site.”

Even though the EPA has found no threat now, Spejewski says it doesn’t mean that its findings are conclusive forever. The EPA is well aware that Grace wants to build on the site, and that building would stir up underlying asbestos. The only reason that the EPA has not ordered Grace to leave the property alone is that state regulations require the company to build in a safe manner, he adds.

“We’ll keep an eye on the site,” he promises. “If anything does change, we can certainly come back to investigate.”

No doubt the Alewife group will make sure of it. “We’ll drive this process as best we can until we get a full understanding of the situation,” Nakagawa says.