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TOLL ROAD AGENCY REQUESTS ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CORRECT LETTER
Letter contains errors and mischaracterizes environmental process
IRVINE, Calif. (April 16, 2008) – The Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) asked the Army Corps of Engineers to correct an April 7 letter regarding the federal environmental process for the completion of the 241 Toll Road.
“Unfortunately, the letter contains serious misstatments concerning the nine-year, $20 million collaborative federal-state environmental review process undertaken for the extension of State Route 241,” TCA CEO Tom Margro states in the letter addressed to Colonel Thomas Magness, Los Angeles district commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
TCA’s letter corrects the record regarding several statements in the April 7 letter signed by Col. Magness and provides citations to support each statement.
“We take exception to your assertion that some of the statements made in the TCA’s Coastal Zone Management Act appeal are false,” Margro states. “The Corps misinterpreted text in the TCA’s appeal regarding the standards that are applied by the Secretary of Commerce under the Coastal Zone Management Act.”
The standards and terms in the Coastal Zone Management Act differ from those applicable to the Corps permit that the project requires.
Army Corps guidelines refer to “practicable” alternatives while the CZMA regulations refer to ‘reasonable and available’ alternatives. An alternative that is practicable under the guidelines of the Army Corps may not qualify as “reasonable and available” under the CZMA.
“Lengthy, multi-decade evaluation of the Project under state and federal law has demonstrated that the alternative identified by the Collaborative agencies is environmentally preferable and that other alternatives (such as the widening of Interstate 5) are not ‘reasonable and available’ because 1) the alternatives entail more severe impacts on the human or natural environment, and 2) there is no identified funding for the non-toll road alternatives.”
The 16-mile alignment was selected after exhaustive study and a collaborative effort by local, state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Highway Administration, Caltrans, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and TCA.
The California Coastal Commission voted against the project in February and TCA has appealed that decision to with the U.S. Department of Commerce. Under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act, the Secretary of the Department of Commerce has the authority to override the Coastal Commission’s objection to the consistency certification if the Secretary finds that the Project is consistent with the objectives and purposes of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act or is necessary in the interest of national security.
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