Group Sues Over Damage To Wetlands Corps Also Accuses Itd Of Violations During Highway 95 Repairs

An environmental group filed a lawsuit against the Idaho Transportation Department Thursday for damage done to wetlands and Sand Creek while rebuilding part of U.S. Highway 95.

The suit calls for the transportation department to pay $50,000 a day in fines from Oct. 1, 1994, until problems with the project are fixed.

“When it became clear the ITD was dragging its feet and not acknowledging the damage that’s been done the last nine months, we decided to take action,” said Diane Williams, director of the Clark Fork Pend Oreille Coalition.

The coalition and five Bonner County residents filed the suit in U.S. District Court. Transportation officials had not seen the lawsuit Thursday and couldn’t comment on it.

Spokeswoman Barbara Babic said a meeting with the transportation department engineer and contractor is slated for today to discuss the status of the $6.8 million job.

The partly finished project, which will rebuild about 10 miles of highway north of Sandpoint, has been riddled with problems. A section of roadbed has sunk into a bog, erosion sent tons of sediment into Sand Creek and a stream bed was destroyed along with nearly five acres of wetlands.

The Army Corps of Engineers revoked a permit for the transportation department to work in several areas because of wetland violations. The Corps is now considering legal action against the transportation department.

The Division of Environmental Quality also has hounded the transportation department about water quality violations and is awaiting an erosion control plan from the state - one the agency requested when the project began.

“It’s obvious to us at this point that it is business as usual for the ITD,” Williams said. “We now have erosion that has continued through winter and spring … and we are looking ahead to fall rains again without anything being done.”

Last spring, the transportation department did haul in rock to keep some steep road banks from washing away. Plastic fences were also erected to try to keep dirt out of Sand Creek.

Williams said all the work was done after the creek was polluted.

“Most of the things we are asking for should have been in place before the project began,” she said. “We have kind of lost faith in the process.”

, DataTimes