EPA backs existing route for Interstate 69

EVANSVILLE -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the state's five top choices for an extension of Interstate 69 into southwest Indiana would damage the area's wetlands and forests.\nThe agency has recommended the state reconsider a route using U.S. 41 and I-70, saying it would do the least amount of environmental damage and still meet the project's top aim of improving travel between Indianapolis and Evansville.\nThe U.S. 41/I-70 route, which is backed by environmentalists, was not one of five top choices identified by state officials in a draft environmental impact statement released this summer.\nThe EPA said the fastest of the more-direct routes of new construction favored by state officials would cut less than 20 minutes off the estimated travel time using the U.S. 41/I-70 option.\n"We do not consider this difference to be compelling," the EPA said.\nThe findings and recommendations were cited in a letter and report sent to the Federal Highway Administration dated Nov. 7 by Thomas Skinner, the regional administrator of the EPA in Chicago.\nA message seeking comment was left Wednesday for Indiana Department of Transportation officials.\nThe state's report released in July said the proposed route following the existing four-lane U.S. 41 from Evansville north to Terre Haute, then east on I-70 to Indianapolis scored poorly regarding travel time, freight movement and economic growth.\nA comment period on the draft environmental impact statement ended Nov. 7.\nState highway Commissioner J. Bryan Nicol has said a route for the extension will be selected by the end of the year. It would then need to be certified by the Federal Highway Administration.\nThe EPA recommended that Indiana highway officials meet with other state and federal agencies before choosing a route.\nSkinner's letter said that the U.S. 41/I-70 route "has at least, two or three times less impact on multiple resources when compared to the 'preferred alternatives' with the lowest construction costs and very low operation and maintenance costs."\nThe preferred routes would have "significant impacts" on wetlands and aquatic resources and "potential impacts" to surface and ground water, the letter said.\nOne organization that has opposed new-terrain routes said the EPA's stand could be significant.\n"I think this really throws a major roadblock into how INDOT would like to proceed," John Moore, an attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, said.\nMoore said the EPA has recognized that the U.S. 41/I-70 route would have environmental problems that likely could not be overcome by careful routing of the highway.\nHe said if state officials proceeded with a new-terrain route anyway, they would incur serious legal risks "regardless of who would sue."\nJames Newland, director of the I-69 Mid-Continent Highway Coalition, said he has not seen the letter, but that he believed any environmental challenges can be worked out.\nHe said the extension is not just about saving travel time, but bringing industry to areas of the state that do not now have access to a major highway.\n"Southwest Indiana has endured a long and painful history as Indiana's neglected transportation stepchildren," Newland said. "The time has come to correct this inequity."\nIn 1996, the EPA said further analysis was needed on a state study done on building an interstate from Evansville to Bloomington. It said more examination was needed on alternatives to the proposed highway and potential impacts.\nThe recommendations were made based on the stated purpose and need for the project being based on bringing economic growth.\nFurther study was halted when it was determined I-69 would be built in southwest Indiana as part of the planned NAFTA superhighway through the central United States from Canada to Mexico.