The officials are members of the Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission. They met this week with EPA representatives to discuss concerns with the Corridor’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
One potential route of the multi-lane corridor splits four municipalities and four school districts - Little River-Academy, Bartlett, Holland and Rogers.
After months of writing letters and talking with officials from the Texas Department of Transportation about their concerns, the officials finally believe they are being heard.
“We finished this meeting and they left. We all looked at each other and said, ‘we made our point and we are so pleased how they listened to us,’” said Holland Mayor Mae Smith, who serves as president of the commission.
The officials spent more than two hours expressing concerns. And, they made it clear, they are prepared to fight TxDOT in a legal battle if necessary.
Fred Kelly Grant, an attorney who serves as advisor to the commission, told the EPA representatives they should use their powers of persuasion with TxDOT, “so we don’t all end up in court.”
Grant is president of Stewards of the Range, a property rights group that is helping the commission take on TxDOT’s plans for a superhighway.
Mike Janskey of the EPA told members of the commission his agency’s primary responsibility is “reviewing and evaluating studies for every other federal agency.”
But, the EPA cannot force other agencies into compliance, he said.
Still, Mrs. Smith said she believes progress was made with the EPA.
“The reason for the meeting was to inform the EPA of our concerns on the environmental impact to our cities, impact to the waters and aquifer in our area and impact on our school districts and the tax base that will be lost,” she said. “They came and listened.”
And city officials freely expressed those concerns.
“It would pretty well destroy the city of Bartlett,” Mayor Arthur White said. “If you can’t get to the other side of the city, people will find other places to work … what do we do? Would the city of Bartlett just dissolve itself?”
Ralph Snyder, a Holland business owner and director of the commission, said he had read the environmental impact statement and doesn’t see that it addresses any of their environmental concerns.
“The way I read it is, it’s OK to hurt the people in the country as long as the people in the city benefit,” Snyder said.
Another concern is the fact that about two-thirds of the land that will be taken is in the Blackland Prairie, said Mickey Burleson, who along with her husband, has restored the soil on their property in Bell County.
“I appreciate it. I have a love for it because it’s so rare,” she said, calling the Blackland Prairie a threatened land resource.
“There’s little doubt this land will be needed to feed our future residents,” Mrs. Burleson said.
Gaby Garcia, spokeswoman for TxDOT, said the impact statement is not meant to answer the environmental concerns for a specific area since a study area has not yet been chosen. In fact, she said TxDOT is in the first step of the process, to narrow the study area.
The second step will be to take that study area and identify the route.
Environmental issues will be addressed in a later study, Ms. Garcia said.
“Those issues that are being brought up certainly need to be addressed if we do go on to the next phase,” she said. “We’re just not there at this stage of environmental studies yet … but they will be addressed.”
Mrs. Smith addressed a major concern for all municipalities - access to an adequate water supply.
“Water is the most golden commodity in Texas now,” she said.
Holland, along with 16 other entities, gets its water from Stillhouse Lake, Mrs. Smith said. “Our water lines from that plant will cross four times under this proposed corridor,” she said.
The soil of the Blackland Prairie allows for refurbishing of the aquifer, working as a sponge to provide the local creeks, rivers and lakes with a long-term water supply, she said.
School districts will be impacted by the corridor if land is taken, and that impacts the tax base.
In addition, bus routes could be a cause for concern if they can’t cross the corridor, said officials from the Holland and Rogers school districts.
Ms. Garcia said she understands all those concerns.
“I know property owners are frustrated. They are wondering ‘is it going to cut through my property?’” she said. “Unfortunately, we don’t know that yet.”
