Dec. 21, 2000
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ The Army Corps of Engineers intends to sign a permit allowing the destruction of wetlands to make way for Gov. Mike Leavitt's proposed Legacy Highway.
Corps officials on Wednesday sent a 100-plus page report to the Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Denver, indicating intent to allow 114 acres of wetlands in Davis County to be filled in.
"That's exciting," Davis County Commissioner Dan McConkie said. "We've been hoping for it. But it's just another baby step in the right direction."
The corps' draft decision does not mean the $370 million project, which would skirt the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake, has cleared the environmental hurdle though.
Environmental groups expect the EPA to block the permit for the 13-mile project that would connect Interstate 215 in Salt Lake County to Interstate 15 in Farmington.
"We actually are very disappointed in the Army Corps of Engineers," said Marc Heileson, assistant representative of the Sierra Club's regional office. "We feel they made a huge mistake. We expect the EPA to correct that mistake or have a court correct that mistake."
Heileson contends the Utah Department of Transportation did not select the least environmentally damaging route and other transit options were ignored.
The EPA, which has ultimate veto power over the permit, has 15 days to respond to the Corps.
The EPA can either concur with the corps' evaluation, allowing the project to move forward, or require further environmental analysis.
In September, the EPA recommended the corps deny the permit for numerous reasons, including concerns over the least wetland-impacting route and preservation of buffer land between the highway and Great Salt Lake.
Col. Michael Walsh of the Army Corps of Engineers said that only six acres of wetlands would be saved if the route were changed.
"I believe that (the preferred alternative) is the least damaging practicable alternative in light of the minor additional amount of wetland impacts to low quality wetlands," Walsh wrote to the EPA.
Environmentalists have threatened to go to court to block the project, if it should win EPA approval.
(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
