Sent 02/27/04 at 2:20 PM as an e-mail to:
INDOT-Lyle Sadler, FHWA-Robert Dirks and Governor- Joe Kernan,
Open comments to the Evansville to Indy I-69 FEIS
February 27, 2004
FHWA, INDOT and BLA,
>From a letter to ELPC staff Attorney, John Moore, we have learned
that
comment to The FEIS for I-69, Evansville to Indianapolis will be
accepted until a time that a ROD would be issued.
...received a letter from Robert
Tally (FHWA Indiana Division Administrator) dated 2/2/04, in
response
to our request for an extension of time. ... he said that "all
comments received prior to signing the ROD will be reviewed to
determine if they contain any new issues not previously addressed in
the FEIS."
Here we provide significant and important additional comments:
We bring to your attention the Monroe County Indiana Karst ordinance
"Chapter
829 Zoning Ordinance: Karst and Sinkhole Development
Standards" attached here.
Former elected Monroe County Indiana Surveyor Kevin Enright who was
instrumental in the development of this ordinance holds that
INDOT and
FHWA must be in compliance with and should have complied with this
document by now. We agree.
We believe that it is clear that INDOT and FHWA are governed by these
regulations, and we include two references to this issue
from the FEIS and the DEIS;
Appendix Z (attached)
included in the FEIS points to the need for INDOT
and FHWA to comply with local and regional regulations.
Karst is a several times repeated
theme in the EPA
DEIS objectionable comments to alternatives 3.
So too do the comments from the EPA to the DEIS state the need to
recognize and adhere to local regulations. On pages 6 & 7 of
the
EPA
DEIS official comments, the EPA specifically warn INDOT and
FHWA
regarding karst, that they
need to comply with local ordinances.
We have found no reference to the Monroe County Indiana Karst ordinance
in the FEIS. Considered with the recent objections of the Karst
study
forwarded by Munson, Munson, Frushour and Peterson, we feel that FHWA
can not at this time issue a ROD without much greater compliance with
the existing state and local understandings and ordinances.
A second objection we present here to the FEIS for Evansville to Indy;
We find it impossible to understand how EIS study consultants--BLA and
INDOT could address all of the concerns of the DEIS, including the
several of the EPA and other federal agencies, with the addition of
hundreds, likely over a thousand, additional pages to the FEIS,
produced during an
additional one-and-one-half years of study, yet absolutely no
increase in the cost estimate for I-69 was incurred. We forward
the
notion that this is a logical absurdity.
John Smith
COUNT US!
http://www.i69tour.org
countus@i69tour.org
(COUNT US! withheld address)
(812) 327-6142
CC: Bloomington Hoosier Times-Kurt van der dussan, Indy Associated
Press, and post elect-Surveyor-Kevin Enright.
BCC: The general COUNT US! membership