Beltway Area Indymedia

The notorious Inter-County Connector highway project is now in court, with oral arguments in the first lawsuit being heard Oct 1 and the second lawsuit Oct 29. The judge's decison could mean construction in November-or with appeals could mean three years of delays that could kill the highway good and dead!

The first lawsuit was filed by the Sierra Club, the Audobon Society, Friends of the Earth, and a couple who will lose their home if the highway goes through. It states that NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act, was violated by an inadequate Environmental Impact Statement.

The willful failure of the EIS to even consider local pollution impacts within 500 feet of the highway, and failure to consider non-highway alternatives to the regional traffic mess, could doom the SHA's chances in court. Even worse for the greedy developers who want the highway, another lawsuit against a highway elsewhere lead to their worst nightmare-the EIS being rejected and an order to redo it. This would mean at least a year's delay.

An appeal of the judge's ruling by either side would mean a delay that could be as long as three years, and probably at least two, according the the Washington Post. This would put approval of any ordered new EIS well into the term of the EPA appointed by Bush's replacement! The Bush EPA was the only way the ICC was ever approved, and probably the election of George Bush and former MD governor Erlich the only reason business groups had the guts to revive it. Erlich is gone, and soon Bush will be gone too. If the ICC is not in concrete at that time, it probalby will never be.

Not only that, this has now become a case with national implications, with the Washington Post quoting a lawyer who represents state governments in these lawsuits saying "this is an important case" and "we're not the only city that has an out-of-date suburban transportaion system." In ohter words, killing the ICC could set a legal precedent that stops dozens more of these destructive freeway projects!

Knowing this, there is fear that the MD State Highway administrration will attempt to make the court's decisions moot by building before a ruling or during an appeal. There had been plans for a groundbreaking(the 4th one!) on Oct 18, most likely at the Ga Ave staging area that has seen so much suspicious activity lately, with trucks and heavy equipment appearing and disappearing on a daily basis.