Yesterday may go down in environmental history as the day the battle for clean air shifted to the court room. Fayette County drivers likely will feel the impact.

In an unprecedented display of solidarity, four leading environmental advocacy groups announced that they are bringing suit against government officials they claim are permitting "grandfathered" road construction to slip through a loophole in federal funding regulations.

Of the alleged improperly "grandfathered" projects, four are in Fayette County: the two-step widening of Ga. Highway 74 south of Ga. Highway 54 and the widening of two bridges in Peachtree City.

The Georgia Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Atlanta Regional Commission were named in a 60-day "notice of intent" to be sued for "illegally approving $700 million in new road construction that will increase air pollution endangering the health of the citizens of the Atlanta region," according to a statement released in a press conference at the State Capitol Building.

This action is the first of its kind in the country and, if successful, will have long-term repercussions for transportation planning and environmentalists claim for the economic and environmental health of American communities.

Joining in the suit are Southern Environmental Law Center, Wesley Woolf, director; Georgians for Transportation Alternatives, Jim Chapman, executive director; Sierra Club, Georgia Chapter, Bryan Hager, transportation organizer; The Georgia Conservancy, Michael Halicki, communications director

Fayette County is one of the 13 metro counties in "non-attainment" of clean air standards developed under the Clean Air Act of 1990. Federal funding for road building is being denied the Atlanta region until it produces a plan and demonstrates a reduction in ground-level ozone production.

Or so it was intended. The suit argues that Georgia DOT, the U.S. DOT, and ARC violated federal law by approving 61 new road construction projects without sufficiently taking into account the impact of the additional traffic on the region's air quality. These projects, say the plaintiffs, should not move forward until they satisfy a long-range plan that reduces air pollution and traffic congestion problems plaguing the region.

The filing is the first citizen legal action nationwide to seek to enforce a key provision of the 1990 Clean Air Act that requires transportation projects to meet air quality standards for car and truck emissions a top public health threat in major U.S. cities. Its authors expect that this action in Atlanta, one of the country's most polluted and congested cities, could set a precedent for transportation planning in dozens of other urban areas.

"Citizens of the Atlanta region can't keep holding their breath waiting for the clean air that comes with smart transportation planning," said Wesley Woolf of the Southern Environmental Law Center, and legal counsel for the plaintiffs.

"One need only look at the sea of frustrated motorists stuck in traffic to understand that Atlanta's transportation system is not working," he said. "If our transportation leaders don't clean up their act, we will have no choice but to take them to court."

Georgia Conservancy's Michael Halicki, media contact for the announced filing, says that the "grandfathered" construction projects are equivalent to the building of one lane of new road stretching from Atlanta to Savannah.

"At the end of last year, [state and federal DOT and ARC] approved a whole series of road projects under grandfathering provisions," Halicki said. "The EPA and Georgia Conservancy were screaming bloody murder, but ARC ignored the outrage and passed it through anyway.

"We're not trying to say you shouldn't grandfather certain roads, in reasonable situations," he continued, "but we have come across $700 million put into grandfathering provisions that will make air pollution worse by ARC's own congestion analysis, they have identified areas where even by their own standards it will make it worse.

"The Atlanta region is one of a few non-attainment areas across the country without a long-range plan. We would like to see the whole action plan. When dealing with $700 million in projects not added into modeling schemes the ARC is developing, they are not really playing by the rules," Halicki said.