The Fayette Citizen-News Page
Wednesday, February 17, 1999
Environmental suit will affect road-building in Fayette area

By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE
Staff Writer

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Well, they went and done it. The treehuggers have taken on the feds.

Georgia's leading environmental advocacy groups filed suit in federal court last month challenging bureaucrats they claim are permitting illegal road-construction to slip through a loophole in federal funding regulations.

The action fulfilled a statement of intent to sue filed on Nov. 10, 1998 to allow time for both parties to reach agreements that the plaintiffs hoped would make the suit unnecessary. The 60-day period was "not very fruitful," according to one of the environmentalists.

The suit charges that 61 improperly "grandfathered" projects were allowed to go forward despite the federal embargo on highway funds to regions in non-attainment of federal clean air standards. Four projects on the list are in Fayette County, with several more in Coweta.

Named in the action for "their respective roles in submitting and approving the roads in question..." and "the agencies' failure to adequately address the relationship between air pollution and transportation planning" are the Georgia Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Atlanta Regional Commission

This action is the first of its kind in the country and, if successful, will enforce provisions in national laws that could lead to cleaner air and reforms in the planning process in the Atlanta region.

It could also have long-term repercussions for transportation planning nationwide and for the economic and environmental health of American communities.

Joining in the suit against the government agencies are Georgians for Transportation Alternatives, Jim Chapman, executive director; Sierra Club, Georgia Chapter, Bryan Hager, transportation organizer; The Georgia Conservancy, Michael Halicki, communications director

Wesley Woolf, director of the Deep South office of the Southern Environmental Law Center, is providing free legal counsel for the plaintiffs.

While the litigation raises some very complex issues, the pivotal issue is the lack of a comprehensive transportation plan, according to Eric Meyer, policy analyst for Georgia Conservancy.

"The region needs a transportation plan to clean up the air, reduce traffic congestion, and meet other community goals," he told The Citizen, adding that such a plan has been mandated by federal law.

"We need a long-range cure, but meanwhile we need to stabilize the situation. While we may finally be waking up to the need for a plan in earnest, we've let the patient continue to bleed. Our greatest frustration is that [planners] are not taking steps toward solving the long-term issues."

Asked how long the process might require, Meyer said, "For the sake of the folks sitting in traffic and having to breathe the region's air, the shorter the better." Very little communication took place between the plaintiffs and the three agencies during the interim following the filing of the notice of intent, he said.

"Unless the governor [Roy Barnes] or the [federal] Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater steps in, we're not very optimistic that the recalcitrant parties will suddenly come to the table and work productively," Meyer remarked. "If that was the case we wouldn't have had to file the suit."

The attorney donating his legal services to the environmentalists was also disappointed in the lack of response during the 60-day interim, and suspects that stalling may be part of the agencies' strategy.

"The first response we attained lacked specifics," Woolf said. "We were hoping for a response that would quickly get all parties into a discussion over substantial air quality improvements through transportation investments, and their response did not do that. We filed the [intent to sue].... and then we had to go ahead and get that lawsuit started."

Woolf said it is conceivable that road-building in the area could be shut down totally if the state and federal agencies ignore the lawsuit, but that's not the goal.

"The goal is to get better air quality," he said, "and we accept that some road building is an appropriate part of the region's work to get better air quality. They're concerned that we might go for expeditious relief in the form of a temporary injunction, but we're willing to work with them to get clean air results without seeking anything that extraordinary."

Both Woolf and Meyer were cautiously optimistic about Gov. Barnes proposals for a regional transportation authority. "It can work if he structures it properly," Woolf said, "and if it is given real power to plan and implement, and if members of the authority represent a true cross-section of the community and not just elected officials and developers. The membership of the authority is crucial, and the substance of their responsibility."

The message to the two DOTs and the ARC? "Let's keep talking," Woolf said. "For us to significantly change our course of action, it's going to require that they change their course of action. But we're willing to meet them halfway."


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