State and Feds Disagree on Mitigation for I93

By Doug MacPherson on Monday, May 20, 2002.

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State and federal officials appear to be at a stalemate over the widening of Interstate 93. At issue is how much mitigation the state needs to do for the impact of the thousands of new residents the completed highway is expected to attract.
NHPR?s Doug MacPherson reports.

THERE ARE MAJOR AREAS OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN STATE AND FEDERAL OFFICIALS. FOR EXAMPLE, EVERYONE AGREES ON THE ECOLOGICAL VALUE OF WETLANDS. IF I-93 IS WIDENED FROM FOUR LANES TO EIGHT LANES ? ABOUT 75 ACRES OF WETLANDS WILL BE DESTROYED. EVERYONE AGREES THOSE LANDS NEED TO BE MITIGATED. THAT MEANS THE STATE WILL HAVE TO PERMANENTLY PROTECT OTHER WETLANDS IN THE FIVE COMMUNITIES WHERE THE WIDENING IS PROPOSED. MIKE BARTLET SUPERVISES THE CONCORD OFFICE OF THE U-S FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE.

TAPE BARTLET it?s been long recognized by the scientific community that wetlands in particular, as a form of habitat, are very, very valuable. There?s a whole array of fish, certainly, and wildlife species that depend either entirely on wetlands for their life needs, or in part ? an important part. : 18

PEOPLE DEPEND ON WETLANDS TOO, TO PURIFY DRINKING WATER. NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS ARE IN FULL AGREEMENT HERE WITH FEDERAL OFFICIALS. SPECIFICALLY, THEY AGREE THAT REMOVING WETLANDS IS A PRIMARY IMPACT OF THE HIGHWAY PROJECT, AND THAT UNDER THE FEDERAL CLEAN WATER ACT, THESE MUST BE MITIGATED.
WHERE THE FEDS AND D-O-T DISAGREE IS OVER WHAT ARE KNOWN AS INDIRECT OR ?SECONDARY? IMPACTS ? LAND AND HABITAT AFFECTED BY THE INCREASED NUMBER OF RESIDENTS A WIDER I-93 IS EXPECTED TO ATTRACT. D-O-T SET UP A COMMISSION OF BANKERS, REALTORS, AND DEVELOPERS TO STUDY THOSE IMPACTS. THE COMMISSION REPORTED THAT 41-THOUSAND PEOPLE WILL SETTLE IN SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE AS A DIRECT RESULT OF WIDENING THE HIGHWAY. AND NOT JUST IN THE COMMUNITIES THE HIGHWAY RUNS THROUGH, WHICH INCLUDE MANCHESTER, DERRY, LONDONDERRY, WINDHAM, AND SALEM. CARL DIERKER IS WITH THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY?S REGION ONE OFFICE.

TAPE CARL DIERKER (?DIRKER?) as you would imagine, there?ll be certainly some increase in population in those five towns. But in fact there?ll be a larger percentage population increase in adjacent towns and neighboring towns. :10

SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE IS ALREADY THE FASTEST GROWING REGION IN NEW ENGLAND ? IT?S AMONG THE TOP TEN FASTEST GROWING AREAS IN THE COUNTRY. D-O-T?S COMMISSION FOUND THAT OF THE 41-THOUSAND PEOPLE WHO WOULD BE ATTRACTED SOLELY BY WIDENING THE HIGHWAY ? MOST WOULD END UP SETTLING IN 23-TOWNS ADJACENT TO THE CORRIDOR COMMUNITIES.
DIERKER SAYS THAT ACCORDING TO THE U-S CENSUS BUREAU AND U-S DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, EACH NEW RESIDENT WILL USE BETWEEN 2 AND 2-POINT-3 NEW ACRES OF LAND.

TAPE CARL DIERKER (?DIRKER?) that?s for housing, schools, shopping and so on. So that number 41-thousand calculates out to somewhere in the order of a 100-thousand acres of land will be developed, due to the increase in population due to the road widening. :13

E-P-A MAINTAINS THAT BECAUSE ABOUT 15-PERCENT OF THOSE
100-THOUSAND ACRES WILL BE WETLANDS ? D-O-T MUST MITIGATE FOR 15-THOUSAND ACRES.
THAT?S WHERE D-O-T COMMISSIONER CAROL MURRAY DISAGREES.

TAPE CAROL MURRAY we have in our mitigation package, 15.1 million dollars for property purchase, which is a total of 650 acres. :10

UNDER D-O-T?S PROPOSAL, ALL THOSE ACRES ARE TO BE PURCHASED IN THE FIVE COMMUNITIES I-93 RUNS THROUGH. AS FOR SECONDARY MITIGATION IN THE 23-OTHER TOWNS ? D-O-T HAS OFFERED THREE MILLION DOLLARS IN TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL PLANNING ASSISTANCE, TO HELP THOSE TOWNS ?PLAN? FOR THE EXPECTED ONSLAUGHT OF NEW RESIDENTS. AND THAT?S AS FAR AS MURRAY WILL GO.

TAPE MURRAY quite frankly, I?ve gone beyond what I really have to do. :05

MURRAY SAYS SHE DOESN?T HAVE TO MITIGATE FOR SECONDARY IMPACTS.
BUT E-P-A ISN?T BUDGING EITHER. TO TRY TO HELP BREAK THE IMPASSE, THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE FORESTS HAS PRESENTED A COMPROMISE, OF SORTS. THE SOCIETY?S CHARLIE NIEBLING SAYS HIS ORGANIZATION DOESN?T TAKE A POSITION ON WHETHER OR NOT I-93 SHOULD BE WIDENED. BUT IF IT IS, THE SOCIETY PROPOSES TO LET D-O-T GO AHEAD WITH ITS PLAN FOR THE FIVE CORRIDOR COMMUNITIES. BUT NIEBLING PROPOSES THAT D-O-T SHOULD DO SOMETHING FOR THE TOWNS OUTSIDE THE CORRIDOR AS WELL.

TAPE NIEBLING providing a certain amount of funds to be administrated through the land and community heritage investment program, or l-chip, to enable those communities to meet their local match requirements since l-chip is a grant program administrated by the state that requires a local match, for the protection of lands within areas that are approved as meeting mitigation objectives. so in other words, a little bit of this federal mitigation money and state mitigation money could go a long way by enabling communities to meet their match requirement with l-chip grants. :34

FIRST DISTRICT CONGRESSMAN JOHN SUNUNU HAS ENCOURAGED D-O-T TO ?CONSIDER? THE IDEA. IN RESPONSE, MURRAY WILL SAY ONLY THAT SHE HAS ?AGREED TO LOOK AT SOME OTHER LANDS? FOR THE TOWNS OUTSIDE THE CORRIDOR. SHE WON?T GO FURTHER THAN THAT. MURRAY AND EVERY OTHER STATE TRANSPORTATION COMMISSIONER KNOWS THAT AS MORE AND MORE LAND BECOMES DEVELOPED -- MITIGATION FOR HIGHWAY PROJECTS WILL ONLY BECOME MORE DIFFICULT IN THE FUTURE.

TAPE MURRAY 257 secondary impact mitigation would be a huge precedent. Quite frankly, I would have 49 of my counterparts, saying, ?What are you doing? You?re not required to do that.? :08

BUT SOME FEDERAL OFFICIALS SAY THAT IN EFFECT ? D-O-T IS MITIGATING FOR SECONDARY IMPACTS ? BUT ONLY IN THE FIVE CORRIDOR COMMUNITIES. D-O-T DOESN?T CALL IT ?SECONDARY MITIGATION.? AGAIN, U-S FISH AND WILDLIFE?S MIKE BARTLET.
TAPE BARTLET see we settled on the mitigation package for the direct impacts a couple of years ago. I mean a long time ago. It was probably the best job we?ve ever done coming to consensus. D.O.T. did a great job ? they started this process really early. :12

BARTLET REFERS TO THE DIRECT MITIGATION OF THE 75-ACRES OF WETLANDS TO BE DESTROYED BY THE WIDENING. FISH AND WILDLIFE OFFICIALS SAY THEY AGREED YEARS AGO THOSE LANDS WOULD BE MITIGATED BY 130-ACRES OF OTHER WETLANDS. SOMEHOW, THAT PROPOSAL HAS NOW GROWN TO BECOME THE 15-MILLION DOLLARS FOR 650-ACRES IN THE FIVE CORRIDOR COMMUNITIES. SEVERAL FEDERAL OFFICIALS INTERVIEWED FOR THIS STORY SAY THEY UNDERSTAND THAT PACKAGE TO INCLUDE MITIGATION FOR SECONDARY IMPACTS, SUCH AS LANDS THAT WILL BE DEVELOPED AS A RESULT OF POPULATION INCREASE. BUT D-O-T DOESN?T WANT TO CALL IT ?SECONDARY MITIGATION? ? FOR FEAR OF THE PRECEDENT IT WOULD SET FOR THE 23-TOWNS ADJACENT TO THE CORRIDOR.

THE NEXT STEP IN THE PROCESS IS FOR D-O-T TO RELEASE A DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT ? THEN ASK THE PUBLIC TO COMMENT. BUT IF THE FEDERAL AND STATE AGENCIES CAN?T REACH AGREEMENT ON MITIGATION WITHIN THAT STATEMENT ? MOST OBSERVERS BELIEVE THE PROJECT WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY DELAYED.
FOR N-H-P-R NEWS, I?M DOUG MACPHERSON.