Harvard lost a major legal battle with the state yesterday when a superior court judge enjoined the University from further construction on portions of its Medical Area power plant project that a state environmental agency had ruled would release too much pollution.

Judge William G. Young said yesterday in a memorandum accompanying his decision that it resolved a "small but not inconsequential skirmish on a much larger battlefield."

Back in January

The Decision backed a January ruling by the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQE) that the power plant's planned diesel engines--designed to produce electricity--would also produce too much nitrogen oxide, an air pollutant.

The court dismissed the suit brought by MATEP--the shell corporation that owns the projected $110 million project. The suit, had it been successful, would have enjoined the DEQE from blocking construction of the plant.

The total energy plant--designed to provide steam, chilled water and electricity at a savings to the Medical School and affiliated hospitals and institutions--has come under attack from citizen groups in the Mission Hill area of Boston, where the plant is located, and groups in nearby Brookline.

Neighborhood groups have opposed the plant on grounds of its expected environmental impact--especially the amount of air pollution it will create.

Yesterday's court decision resolved one legal fight in the path of the project, but other obstacles remain in the way of the project's completion, which has been delayed by a series of agency deliberations and court cases.

L. Edward Lashman, Harvard's director of external projects and chief of the power plant effort, declined to comment on the court ruling last night, citing the 22-page length of memorandum accompanying Young's decision.

A preliminary court ruling in July had permitted the University to continue with construction of the diesel portion of the plant, pending further court review of the DEQE ruling. Young's final decision, which followed a series of hearings over the past two weeks, reversed the preliminary ruling.