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Stopping the Northern Corridor Highway:
The Way Forward
Putting a stop to the Northern Corridor Highway will happen one step at a time. And we will stop it!
We have been preparing for the next steps in the long Northern Corridor Highway saga since submitting comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) in early September. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued the DEIS for public comment in response to the county’s request for the highway’s right-of-way through protected tortoise habitat in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area (NCA).
The BLM and the US Fish and Wildlife Service are now reviewing the almost 15,000 comment letters they received from the public. CSU, with participation from our Coalition partners, submitted a 329-page document, identifying 305 specific technical issues. Considering these comment letters and subsequent input from the county, the federal agencies will revise the DEIS and release a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), targeted for November 13. A 30-day protest period follows.
We have requested that a Supplemental DEIS be written, which would pause the issuing the FEIS, to address several issues:
- A new environmental baseline after the recent devastating wildfires in the Red Cliffs NCA,
- The illegal routing of the county’s preferred Northern Corridor solution through land in the NCA purchased using Land and Water Conservation Funds, as well as violations to other laws.
- The thousands of substantive comments identifying issues with the DEIS.
The leadership of the US House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee has also sent a letter to Interior Secretary Bernhardt asking that the process be halted until these issues are addressed.
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Visit the Updated CSU Website!
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Sadly, we expect that political pressure from our elected representatives and the Trump administration’s support for environmentally damaging projects will overwhelm facts, data, and common sense. The FEIS will probably support their preference stated in the DEIS for a highway routed through the NCA, through one of the densest tortoise populations, and through lands purchased using funds that disallow this use. All this damage even though better and cheaper alternatives exist.
After studying the FEIS to see which of our 305 issues were addressed, we anticipate filing a protest in mid-December. The approval of the FEIS is targeted for January 13, just before Inauguration Day. Our protest will be the an important element forming the basis for legal action in federal court. We’ll let you know when and how to participate in the FEIS review and protest. If legal action is required, we will again let you know when and how to participate.
 Whatever the way forward, we will be in a better position when our federal, state, and local officials are better informed about the NCH and the substantial constituency opposed to it. Now is the time, during this election season, to contact our elected officials and those running for office to share information and your opinion about the NCH.
Many of you have a working relationship with our elected officials at one or more levels of government. Many others of you care deeply about stopping the NCH but have never contacted an official. The CSU Website offers guidance for all levels of experience on how to approach leaders in a way that opens the kind of dialogue that can lead to change. Please take a few minutes to review our suggestions and map out your plans to engage with officials on the perils of the NCH.
Together we have made great strides so far in this fight. We will stop this damaging highway. Now is the time to take the next steps.
See Background on the Northern Corridor Highway for more details about the history.
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