Feds Join Suit Over Damage From Road Project Highway 95 Work Affected Wetlands, Waterways; Separate Suit Targets Highway 2 Problems
The Idaho Transportation Department is being taken to task for major environmental damage it caused with two road construction projects here.
The federal government, taking a cue from local environmentalists, joined in a lawsuit against highway officials.
The lawsuit, drafted this summer by the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille Coalition, says construction on U.S. Highway 95 destroyed four acres of wetlands and polluted Sand Creek.
The complaint calls for highway officials to restore the creek and be fined $25,000 a day for water quality violations that started more than a year ago.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, acting on behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers, also filed a separate lawsuit against the transportation department for construction problems on Highway 2 west of Sandpoint.
That project also ruined wetlands and sent sediment into the Pend Oreille River.
“This not only verifies the seriousness of the problems, but confirms the ITD has been acting above the law and basically dodging enforcement,” said Diane Williams, director of the Clark Fork Coalition.
“I think this will have an impact on how the ITD does road construction in the future, and the corps should be applauded for stepping up and doing the right thing,” she said.
The legal action halted some construction on the Highway 2 job where a stockpile of fill material was eroding into wetlands and the Pend Oreille River.
Transportation officials said they are already working with government and coalition attorneys to settle the dispute out of court.
“All parties are negotiating, and we think we can resolve this with a consent decree,” said transportation department attorney Steve Parry.
Coalition and government attorneys want destroyed wetlands to be repaired or replaced.
They also want Sand Creek, which flows into Lake Pend Oreille, cleaned up.
The Highway 95 project sent tons of dirt and mud into the creek and nearly destroyed another stream, which was moved to make room for the highway.
“The object is to end up with an agreement to fix the damage that has already been done,” said coalition attorney Scott Reed.
“But most of all we want the ITD to be brought into line and forced to comply with the Clean Water Act and other rules and regulations that apply to everyone else.”
It could cost several million taxpayer dollars to fix the damage.
The two construction jobs have already run nearly $4 million over budget because of poor planning by the transportation department.
Highway officials failed to get proper permits for some work and sidestepped erosion control regulations.
On one section of Highway 95, engineers didn’t take soil samples before putting in the new lanes.
That resulted in about 400 feet of road sinking into a bog.
“There have been some gross violations here,” Reed said. “And what this amounts to is the coalition and now the government saying, ‘No more.”’
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