Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Will Wetlands Controversy Swamp the Commonwealth Connector?

—

by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Wetlands where the Nottaway and Blackwater Rivers converge to form the Chowan River.
Wetlands where the Nottaway and Blackwater Rivers converge to form the Chowan River.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has spent $192 million on design and other work on the U.S. 460 Connector but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has yet to give a permit for the project, which would destroy an estimated 480 acres of wetlands.

VDOT officials quoted by the Virginian-Pilot‘s Dave Foster say work is proceeding on portions of the project not affecting the wetlands because they are confident they have plotted the most practical, least environmentally damaging alternative for the four-lane, limited access tollway. The $1.4 billion toll project, now dubbed the Commonwealth Connector, will provide interstate highway-quality access from Petersburg to Suffolk. The investment of roughly $1 billion in public dollars has been justified on the grounds that the highway will stimulate the Ports of Virginia and port-related industrial development.

But the Army Corps is still studying the environmental impact, and the Southern Environmental Law Center has called upon the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to require VDOT’s design-build contractor to halt work until the environmental reviews are complete. The wetlands include pine flats and river swamps that sprout cypress and tupelo trees in the watersheds of the Blackwater and Nottoway rivers. A local environmentalist described them as looking like “dinosaur land.”

VDOT’s latest environmental report concludes that the 480 acres of impacted wetlands far exceeds the 129 acres estimated in the Environmental Impact Statement. That’s an “astonishing” 270% increase, stated SELC attorneys Trip Pollard and Morgan Butler in a letter to FHWA Division Administrator Irene Rico. That amount is three times larger than the estimated impact of the proposed Southeastern Parkway, which the FHWA had terminated on environmental grounds.

“Given the unprecedented magnitude of wetlands impacts now expected to result from the new Route 46o, we believe this proposal warrants serious reconsideration,” stated Pollard and Butler. To ensure that the review is not biased by “any further irretrievable commitment of resources” to the project, FHWA should halt work until the review is complete, they said.

— JAB

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

5 responses to “Will Wetlands Controversy Swamp the Commonwealth Connector?”

  1. reed fawell III Avatar
    reed fawell III

    “The wetlands include pine flats and river swamps that sprout cypress and tupelo trees in the watersheds of the Blackwater and Nottoway rivers … looking like “dinosaur land.”

    I usually have little patience with those who oppose major and needed infrastructure projects on the grounds of postage stamp wet patches.

    Not here?

    These sorts of large acreage wetlands that feed Virginia’s inland waters are irreplaceable. They’re also magically. That’s critically important too.

    Every kid should be as fortunate as I was, walking the wetlands that bless the Pamunkey River north of Richmond.

    There, along the Pamunkey, eight years old and hunting squirrel alone, I fell in irretrievably in love with the natural world. Every kid of every age and generation and place deserves that chance.

  2. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Th state of Virginia comprises 27,376,000 acres. 480 acres is hardly a big deal. Virginia has approximately one million acres of wetlands (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaC1lk7KVzI). Losing any wetlands is a shame. But 480 / 1,000,000?

    As usual, the shrillness of the anti-progress society is notable:

    “Given the unprecedented magnitude of wetlands impacts now expected to result from the new Route 46o, …”

    480 acres (2/3 of a sq mi) is unprecedented?

  3. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    I’m an outdoors guy also. I have paddled the Blackwater and Nottoway swamps and they are indeed magical places to those who value them but to others they are swamps that stand in the way of progress.

    VDOT has had and continues to have a running feud with the “resource” agencies of which the Army Corps is one.

    In some states – the DOT and the resources agencies “consult” on the front end of a proposed project. It’s a little dance that seeks to arrive an informal agreement about where and where not to go.

    In Va, VDOT prefers the ” we’re going here no matter what you say” approach .. not always but enough so they get themselves into stand-offs that often delay and sometimes stop projects.

    I’m not a big fan of “constructed” wetlands which last time I checked – if the resources agencies agreed – had to be a 2 to 1 replacement of the impacted wetlands.. in this case, close to a thousand acres which believe it or not is a
    “business” where a company will go out and survey land to see if it can be converted from a low lying forest or field into a wetland by damming up the downhill end of it and letting water rise …

    but I’ve done a fair amount of paddling and seen my share of bridges over swamps from the bottom looking up and I have to say.. (and I’m sure someone might correct me) – that once the bridge footings and supports are in… that there is very little other disruption and the frogs.. and lilypads and fish and gators and beavers.. all seem quite satisfied… and get used to the road noise.

    there are many, many existing bridges over wetlands, and many are 50, 60, 90 years old and I wonder if they could be approved if built now days.

    so I do wonder … sometimes… when you get right down to it what the big damage is..

    if anyone knows more about that aspect, I’d appreciate hearing further info.

  4. TMT Avatar
    TMT

    My recollection of federal regulation of wetlands is that if a project takes 100 acres, it must replace them. I didn’t know it was two to one. In any event, if no wetlands could ever be drained, nothing would ever get built. Many states have hundred and hundreds of wetlands habitats.

  5. Trevor Avatar
    Trevor

    This highway project is a boondoggle. Why spend $1.4 billion to build a new four lane highway to replace an existing four lane highway through a rural area that is very lightly used by a few trucks hauling logs and hogs? This 1.4 billion dollars should be put toward highway projects that would ease the gridlock for commuters in urban areas like Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads instead of wasting it on a four lane road through the boonies where nobody lives except a handful of dirt farmers who don’t need this highway, or want it to be built.

Leave a Reply

Read More