stefan
10-17-2007, 08:58 PM
there's that darn public health getting in the way of good wholesome progress. :nono:
Freeway called a health hazard
Mountain View Corridor would increase cancer risks for children, say critics
By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune
The long-awaited environmental study for the Mountain View Corridor was released Wednesday, and opponents immediately began lining up against it.
The study shows 21 Salt Lake County public schools would be within a half-mile of the proposed west side freeway, a proposition that community activists call an unacceptable health risk to children.
The draft study came in five volumes, contained more than 2,000 pages and weighed 18 pounds, and represented the work of hundreds of people, said Mountain View project manager Teri Newell.
The project is designed to meet the needs of more than a half-million new residents expected in western Salt Lake County and northwestern Utah County by 2030. Without the new freeway, the environmental study shows, congestion in the study area would increase 791 percent, travel delays would cost the economy and residents $1.1 million per day and increase road collisions.
The study points out a need for more pedestrian and bicycle routes and notes the current lack of mass transit options. UDOT and the Utah Transit Authority have identified a preferred fixed-route transit corridor to run down the middle of 5600 West that as yet has no funding.
But it's the preferred route itself - 5800 West from Salt Lake City International Airport to Lindon in Utah County, with a six-lane connector to I-15 along 2100 North in Lehi - that is the problem for the Salt Lake County activists and the city of Lehi, which has its own proposal that would stop the freeway at 4800 North near Camp Williams.
The Utah chapter of the Sierra Club and a citizens' group campaigned all summer against Utah Department of Transportation plans to run an eight-lane freeway near two elementary schools and one high school in West Valley City.
On Wednesday, Sierra Club spokesman Marc Heileson was surprised to hear of the other schools, which are between 500 and 800 meters from UDOT's preferred route, and predicted the health risk to children's lung development would be the "fatal flaw" in the plan.
Cherise Udell, co-founder of Utah Moms for Clean Air likened the UDOT proposal to creation of a cancer corridor.
"If you know ahead of time that 'X' number of people statistically will die or be disabled in some way because of these pollutants, then it is human sacrifice and we have to see it that way," Udell said. "If that's morally unacceptable, we have to do something about it."
The two groups and others that advocate "smart growth" plans that put transit development ahead of freeway development point to a vision statement that UDOT, two metropolitan planning agencies, UTA, the Federal Highway and Federal Transit administrations wrote along with Envision Utah. That document committed UDOT to include a working transit system as part of its proposal, Heileson said.
The activists' health claims are based on a 13-year health study published in the professional medical journal The Lancet that showed children who lived within 1,500 meters of a major roadway were exposed to soot, ultrafine particulates, nitrogen dioxide and other exhaust pollutants. The most serious respiratory effects were found in children within 500 meters of the freeways.
UDOT's environmental study details the toxic emissions that would come with the Mountain View freeway but says "concentrations or exposures created by each of the project alternatives cannot be predicted with enough accuracy to be useful in estimating health impacts."
Three schools in West Valley City lie within 500 meters of UDOT's proposed alternative. The other 18 public schools UDOT says are within a half-mile, or about 800 meters, also are in the dangerous pollution zone reported in The Lancet.
Heileson has said the Sierra Club may turn to the courts, using a 2005 settlement in a lawsuit over highway-related health hazards in Nevada as a precedent, to convince UDOT to come up with a different alternative.
The Nevada Sierra Club sued to stop construction of a $160 million segment of a $450 million widening project on U.S. 95 northwest of the Las Vegas Strip, the most congested freeway in the state. They won their case in a federal appeals court, but withdrew the lawsuit due to strong public support for the project.
Freeway called a health hazard
Mountain View Corridor would increase cancer risks for children, say critics
By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune
The long-awaited environmental study for the Mountain View Corridor was released Wednesday, and opponents immediately began lining up against it.
The study shows 21 Salt Lake County public schools would be within a half-mile of the proposed west side freeway, a proposition that community activists call an unacceptable health risk to children.
The draft study came in five volumes, contained more than 2,000 pages and weighed 18 pounds, and represented the work of hundreds of people, said Mountain View project manager Teri Newell.
The project is designed to meet the needs of more than a half-million new residents expected in western Salt Lake County and northwestern Utah County by 2030. Without the new freeway, the environmental study shows, congestion in the study area would increase 791 percent, travel delays would cost the economy and residents $1.1 million per day and increase road collisions.
The study points out a need for more pedestrian and bicycle routes and notes the current lack of mass transit options. UDOT and the Utah Transit Authority have identified a preferred fixed-route transit corridor to run down the middle of 5600 West that as yet has no funding.
But it's the preferred route itself - 5800 West from Salt Lake City International Airport to Lindon in Utah County, with a six-lane connector to I-15 along 2100 North in Lehi - that is the problem for the Salt Lake County activists and the city of Lehi, which has its own proposal that would stop the freeway at 4800 North near Camp Williams.
The Utah chapter of the Sierra Club and a citizens' group campaigned all summer against Utah Department of Transportation plans to run an eight-lane freeway near two elementary schools and one high school in West Valley City.
On Wednesday, Sierra Club spokesman Marc Heileson was surprised to hear of the other schools, which are between 500 and 800 meters from UDOT's preferred route, and predicted the health risk to children's lung development would be the "fatal flaw" in the plan.
Cherise Udell, co-founder of Utah Moms for Clean Air likened the UDOT proposal to creation of a cancer corridor.
"If you know ahead of time that 'X' number of people statistically will die or be disabled in some way because of these pollutants, then it is human sacrifice and we have to see it that way," Udell said. "If that's morally unacceptable, we have to do something about it."
The two groups and others that advocate "smart growth" plans that put transit development ahead of freeway development point to a vision statement that UDOT, two metropolitan planning agencies, UTA, the Federal Highway and Federal Transit administrations wrote along with Envision Utah. That document committed UDOT to include a working transit system as part of its proposal, Heileson said.
The activists' health claims are based on a 13-year health study published in the professional medical journal The Lancet that showed children who lived within 1,500 meters of a major roadway were exposed to soot, ultrafine particulates, nitrogen dioxide and other exhaust pollutants. The most serious respiratory effects were found in children within 500 meters of the freeways.
UDOT's environmental study details the toxic emissions that would come with the Mountain View freeway but says "concentrations or exposures created by each of the project alternatives cannot be predicted with enough accuracy to be useful in estimating health impacts."
Three schools in West Valley City lie within 500 meters of UDOT's proposed alternative. The other 18 public schools UDOT says are within a half-mile, or about 800 meters, also are in the dangerous pollution zone reported in The Lancet.
Heileson has said the Sierra Club may turn to the courts, using a 2005 settlement in a lawsuit over highway-related health hazards in Nevada as a precedent, to convince UDOT to come up with a different alternative.
The Nevada Sierra Club sued to stop construction of a $160 million segment of a $450 million widening project on U.S. 95 northwest of the Las Vegas Strip, the most congested freeway in the state. They won their case in a federal appeals court, but withdrew the lawsuit due to strong public support for the project.