____________________Forward Header_____________________
Subject:    A milestone for the Legacy Highway
Author: SW-UT Field
Date:       1/7/99 11:39 AM

Friends,

The first thing to say is that it isn't over yet, so let's not get cocky.
But
the article which follows should give some idea of the serious nature of
the
blow which EPA has struck the Legacy Highway.  As an Audubon partner said
to me
this morning, "People need to be reminded about who has done most of the
work to
make this happen -- the Sierra Club."

As Marc Heileson says, we buried EPA and the Corps and the others with mail
from
Utah.  They have noticed.  Bill Yellowtail himself was here last year.  He
had
up to that time never heard of the Legacy Highway, but he came away from
the
Utah meeting with a new awareness.  And the payoff is below.

Ever nervous, I point out that the new Congress has just been sworn in, and
whenver it tears itself away from the current idiocy our Utah senators will
be
free to focus their attention on legislative findings of NEPA sufficiency
attached to a spending bill.  I hope we don't have to fight this in
Congress,
but we might.

Maybe some parts of the news story would look good in the Action Daily.

Cheers,
LL

Thursday, January 7, 1999
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EPA Says it Won't Yield On Legacy Plan

BY BRANDON LOOMIS
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

    The proposed Legacy Highway suffered a potentially fatal setback
Wednesday
when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it intends to veto any
highway project across Great Salt Lake wetlands.
    Regional EPA Director William Yellowtail's decision is the most vexing
in a
series of roadblocks for the proposed 13-mile Legacy route in Davis County.
His
agency can stop construction even if the wetlands-regulating Army Corps of
Engineers approves the project.
    ``It is EPA's opinion that Legacy Parkway will result in substantial
and
unacceptable impacts to aquatic resources of national importance,''
Yellowtail
wrote wetlands regulators at the corps. A separate letter broke the news to
the
Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT).
    Yellowtail said the proposal's destruction of 155 wetland acres would
be the
largest displacement by a highway on record in the six-state EPA region
that
includes Utah. Those wetlands are internationally important for migratory
shorebirds and are a buffer to flooding, he noted.
    He requested UDOT start over in its study of transportation options and
place more emphasis on public transit, reduction of peak-hour commuting and
improvement of existing routes such as Interstate 15.
    Any EPA veto would follow a decision by the Corps of Engineers to issue
a
permit under the Clean Water Act, an action that in itself has been in
doubt for
most of the past year. Corps officials have said that the proposed
alignment --
which is the westernmost of three identified alternatives -- appears
illegal
because other routes could spare more wetlands. The EPA position goes
further,
saying UDOT's current study does not appear to justify any highway
alignment
that crosses the wetlands.
    Yellowtail's letter does not guarantee the highway's rejection. A more
detailed study by UDOT conceivably could persuade the corps and the EPA to
change their minds. And EPA's veto process, including public comments and a
review at headquarters, could take long enough that the outcome could
change
with the 2000 presidential election.
    But it is the federal government's sternest warning so far for Utah
highway
builders, Gov. Mike Leavitt and the Davis County cities that are pressing
for a
highway to ease I-15 rush-hour crowding.
    ``We'll continue to move forward because we have a proposal that we
believe
is environmentally friendly,'' Leavitt spokeswoman Vicki Varela said
Wednesday
evening. In touting the project's environmental sensitivity, Leavitt has
called
the four-lane freeway ``Legacy Parkway.''
    Varela said the governor had not yet reviewed the letters to respond to
EPA's comments specifically.
    But UDOT officials had reviewed the EPA's letter to them. ``It is a
little
troubling,'' said Carlos Braceras, UDOT's Legacy Highway team leader. But,
he
added, ``it's not overly unexpected.''
    Braceras characterized the letter as helpful comments that will enable
UDOT
to refine its environmental study of the project. He said he hopes the
final
study, to be released this spring, can sway the corps and avoid an EPA
veto.
    ``We still look at these comments as working toward and improving the
quality of the final environmental-impact statement,'' Braceras said.
    He rejected Yellowtail's suggestion that the state focus instead on
increasing transit opportunities and improving existing roads. UDOT
projections
show even the planned widening of I-15 and new rail transit would fall
short of
commuter needs between Farmington and Salt Lake City in 20 years.
    ``We've demonstrated that's not a reasonable or practical
alternative,''
Braceras said. ``EPA is a little bit outside their field of expertise in
that
statement.''
    He said UDOT will continue to make the case that the state's offer to
preserve 1,500 acres of private ground near the Great Salt Lake actually
makes
the highway an environmental asset. In response, environmentalists have
said the
preserve does not make up for 1,000 acres of bird habitat in wetlands that
would
be stranded east of the highway. For his part, Yellowtail wrote that the
preserve is a worthy goal, regardless of whether the preferred alignment is
approved.
    Asked whether the letters mean EPA would intervene if the highway went
forward as proposed, EPA regional wetlands coordinator Dave Ruiter said:
``Yes.
We don't like what's being proposed right now.'' He works in the same
Denver
office as Yellowtail, setting policy for Colorado, Montana, the Dakotas,
Utah
and Wyoming.
    The Utah chapter of the Sierra Club, a Legacy foe that has helped spark
a
national lobbying campaign on behalf of the lake, was thrilled upon hearing
of
Yellowtail's letters. ``That's a pretty damaging grade,'' said conservation
organizer Marc Heileson.
    UDOT should have foreseen this and changed course before starting its
study,
he said. ``We could have saved them a lot of time and money if they would
have
listened to us.''
    The public comment period for UDOT's environmental study of the project
ends
Friday.

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