The Eyes of Paint Branch - Newsletter Fall 2002
Vol: 8 Issue: 2
The Mythology of the ICC
Robert Ferraro President
Reading the press coverage of Montgomery County's election campaigns, I'm reminded of a course I took called "Problems of Democracy." In this course I learned about the various techniques of political propaganda and how to sort through it to get to the real issues. One of these techniques, called the "Big Lie," was to keep repeating something so often that it becomes an accepted "truth." This election season, our "Big Lie" is that the ICC will relieve traffic congestion on our roads.
Numerous candidates for local and state offices have been calling for another study of the ICC, and many have said that it is the only way to relieve our congested roads. One after another, candidates and newspapers keep talking about our awful transportation mess and how one project above all others will ease our pain. These statements are gaining acceptance among the public. Recent polls have shown that two thirds of the people in Montgomery County want the ICC.
But the real story of the ICC is, as studies have shown, that congestion will be worse if it is built. In addition, the ICC would provide the access needed to open up vast, currently undeveloped tracts of land at its endpoints to sprawl development, resulting in a compounding of congestion.
Eyes of Paint Branch has always been interested in the ICC because various alternatives go right through the headwaters of the watershed, a designated Special Protection Area. We have examined all of the official studies on this proposed highway and present the facts to you in this special edition of our newsletter.
While the proponents of the ICC always talk about the supposed benefits, they never talk about the costs. The direct environmental costs are so great as to be virtually incalculable, and the indirect environmental costs, such as increased air pollution and runoff, have not even been studied. The enormous fiscal costs mean that other worthwhile projects would go unfunded. And the social costs of fragmented communities and sprawl development that will follow will also exacerbate all of the other problems as we come full circle.
The polls would be very different if the public knew the facts and not the mythology of the ICC.