The Arizona Dept. of Transportation has submitted a draft Memorandum of Understanding to the Federal Highway Administration seeking an exemption from requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.
In a an email dated February 12, Arizona Dept. of Transportation (ADOT) issued its obligatory advisory:
“The MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) Notice outlining the program under which the FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) would assign environmental review authority and responsibility to ADOT is now available for review and comment. ADOT encourages members of the public to review and comment on the Surface Transportation Project Delivery Program MOU, also known as NEPA Assignment.”
To decipher the message, interested parties must navigate other websites, and “a maze of unrelated data,” according to the Avra Valley Coalition. The Coalition’s Robin Clark took the time and energy to do that and finally found a direct link. It is on page 51 in Appendix A of the “Final Application” PDF.
A National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) assignment would place ADOT in control of everything required in an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) except consultation with tribal governments. Exemptions include regulations on clean air, safe drinking water, flood plains, wetlands, endangered species, hazardous materials, historic and cultural resources, social and economic impacts, noise, etc. The work of the federal Environmental Protection Agency would be put in ADOT’s hands.
In other words, ADOT would be monitoring itself and merely make regular reports to the FHWA.
Many opponents of a proposed Avra Valley I-11 highway and/or a Sonoran Corridor linking I-10 and I-19 with a convoluted route that would give real estate mogul and political donor Don Diamond a free access highway to his planned 3200 acre development saw those projects listed as exceptions, according to the Coalition. Those two Southern Arizona projects, currently in the late stages of a Tier 1 EIS, would remain under FHWA supervision and have to follow the rules (subject, ADOT notes, to change).
However, according to the Coalition, “When the Tier 1 studies are completed, they will show a “preferred alternative” with a 2000-foot-wide corridor for the proposed routes. That then goes to a Tier 2 EIS which narrows it down to 400 feet and brings in details like interchanges, exits, etc. Those Tier 2 studies would be completely under ADOT’s control as part of the NEPA Assignment. The I-11 Tier 1 EIS was scheduled to be finished this Fall, with the Sonoran Corridor study to be completed in Spring, 2019. Opposition from many sources and for many good reasons has changed that.”
Citing the government shutdown as a reason, ADOT has not yet released the expected reports. “The I-11 preferred alternative – a new Avra Valley highway or the much less expensive improving I-10 – is written but not yet made public. Once it is, public meetings will be held and comments solicited. Then the final report will be issued and ADOT will be ready, if the FHWA approves the NEPA Assignment plan, to charge ahead without oversight for community, wildlife or health considerations,” says the Coalition in a press release.
“Public comments on the NEPA Assignment, which ADOT assures us “will be considered but may not be acted on,” are due no later than March 13,” reports the Coalition. “The instructions are written in bureaucratese, a language foreign to most Americans.”
The Coalition advises in their press release that the “easiest way to make your views known” is to go to navigate your way to the “Comment Now” button on the upper right of the page.”
Of additional concern to ADOT’s critics and the Coalition “is what the format will be when the public meetings are finally announced. Their usual format has been an “Open House,” a formal presentation with no questions or comments from the public, followed by looking at maps and such and talking one-on-one with generally ill-informed staff brought on for the occasion. In past meetings the public knew more about the projects than those supposed to be answering their questions.
I-11 EIS Study Manager Jay Van Echo, also the advisor for the Sonoran Corridor study, promised over 100 people at a Citizens for Picture Rocks meeting last August that the upcoming meetings would have open discussion. ADOT lists that as an option for Open House meetings, but neither project has ever used it. When, at a Marana I-11 public meeting in 2017, a question was asked from the floor Van Echo got visibly angered and a large enforcer-type from their public relations team came over to shut the elderly questioner up.
Critics of the NEPA Assignment are agreed: ADOT should not be allowed to regulate itself. Environmental review authority should not with the agency being reviewed. There need to be checks and balances with independent oversight. But if FHWA is going to grant the NEPA Assignment, the I-11 and Sonoran Corridor Tier 2 EIS’s must be combined with the Tier 1 exceptions so that both retain necessary oversight. The comment period ends March 13.
Some see the NEPA Assignment as insurance for ADOT’s long-range plans in the event of political changes in 2020. Although construction may be off in the future, decisions made in the next few months will determine the fates of communities and wildlife, of parks and tourist attractions, of existing I-10 businesses and area water supplies, and the use or misuse of taxpayer dollars, for generations to come.
———————————
Contacts provide by the Avra Valley Coalition:
Avra Valley Coalition: avravalleycoalition@gmail.com,
Avra Valley Awareness League – – alfordk2002@yahoo.com
ADOT:
Jay Van Echo, I-11 EIS Study Manager – jvanecho@adot.gov
Steven Olmstead, NEPA Assignment Manager — SOlmsted@azdot.gov
FHWA:
Aryan Lirange – Aryan.lirange@dot.gov
ON RECORD OPPOSING I-11 IN THE AVRA VALLEY: Citizens for Picture Rocks; City of Tucson; Pima Natural Resource Conservation District; Garcia Strip Community of the Toak District; San Xavier District; and Schuk District, Tohono O’odham Nation; National Park Service; Friends of Saguaro National Park; Friends of Ironwood Forest; Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection; Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum; Tucson Audubon Society; Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation; I-11 Community Planning Group (several of the above plus Menlo Park Neighborhood Association, National Parks Conservation Association, Erickson Terrascape, Drachman Institute, and Statistical Research); Sierra Club; Friends of Tucson Mountain Park; Sky Island Alliance; Gates Pass Area Neighborhood Association; Congressman Raul Grijalva; State Senator Steve Farley; L.D. 11 State Senator Vince Leach, & Reps. Mark Finchem & Bret Roberts (Republicans) ; LD 11Democrat State Rep. candidates Hollace Lyon & Ralph Atchue; Pima County Board of Supervisors – Resolution 2007-343; Rancho del Conejo Community Water Co-op (partial list, and growing).