The Eyes of Paint Branch - Fall 2002
Newsletter
Volume: 8 Issue: 2
An Environmentally Sensitive ICC?
As the 2002 elections draw near, there has been increased talk about the need to build the ICC in an environmentally sensitive way. Yet there is no attempt by ICC proponents to explain what "environmentally sensitive" means. Platitudes to the promise of American ingenuity, such as the published statement of a local candidate that proclaimed "if we can put a man on the moon we can build an environmentally sensitive ICC," do nothing to provide further insight into how this task could be successfully accomplished.
Rather than relying on groundless speculation that supports wishful thinking, it is important to consider the facts. The ICC's failure over the past 40 years is directly related to its failure to comply with federal, state, and local environmental laws and statutes -- that's a fact. In addition, numerous studies over the years have cataloged the facts regarding the irreparable environmental impacts the ICC would cause. Here's a brief list from those studies of what the ICC would do:
- Cut across and severely degrade six watersheds: Indian Creek, Little Paint Branch, Paint Branch, Northwest Branch (of the Anacostia River), North Branch Rock Creek, and Rock Creek (main stem).
- Bisect the largest, most biologically diverse, and most unspoiled forests and wetlands left in eastern and central Montgomery County, including the Upper Paint Branch Special Protection Area and the Needwood North Biodiversity Protection Area.
- Add sediment, heat, and chemical pollution to streams, leading to a reduction in aquatic species.
- Destroy over 100 acres of functional wetlands.
- Eradicate floodplains that store floodwaters, causing increased erosion to our already stressed stream banks.
- Eliminate vital recharge zones that filter and release cool, clean water into our streams.
- Bisect, in its Northern Alignment, the Agricultural Preserve and the part of the Patuxent watershed that provides our drinking water.
- Contribute to increased air pollution as a result of the increased congestion it would bring.
- Pave over critical breeding habitat for amphibians.
- ragment forests, devastating over 1,000 acres of increasingly rare habitat for 21 species of forest-interior-dependent songbirds.
- Eliminate the last-remaining east-west wildlife corridors in the eastern and central parts of the county, increasing instances of wildlife roadkill.
- Destroy several champion trees in the ICC right-of-way, as well as habitat for rare and uncommon plant species.
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Naturalist John Parrish with frog eggs from a wetland next to the Good Hope tributary, near the Master Plan Alignment. |
Some ICC proponents have proposed using end-on construction to reduce the damage. But the Environmental Protection Agency has said that "end-on construction would not effectively mitigate the impacts of the Master Plan Alignment" and that "regardless of the construction technique employed," "the highway corridor would fragment large contiguous forested areas, adversely impact the stream valley parks, [and] generate potentially polluting stormwater runoff."
All of the assertions presented here are well documented in public and private reports and correspondence. For more information on any of these points, please see the ICC section on our Web page (www.eopb.org), or contact Eyes of Paint Branch.
We recommend the next time you hear someone saying we need an ICC that can be built in an environmentally sensitive way, provide them with these facts and ask whether they consider these outcomes to be environmentally sensitive.