Farm Bureau says Trans-Texas Corridor I-69 fails to meet environmental standards

Contributed

Bandera local farmers and rancher charge that the I-69 Trans-Texas Corridor Tier One Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) has failed to meet important environmental standards. 
Barbara Mazurek, Bandera County Farm Bureau President says that these failures are indicative of the problems that exist with the entire Tran-Texas Corridor (TTC).

“Because these environmental standards have not been met, the Texas Department of Transportation should seriously consider alternatives to its current model,” Mazurek said.
According to Mazurek, there are three main reasons that the DEIS is flawed.

• It limits its analysis to alternatives that fit the TTC “vision” of a multimodal transportations corridor, despite the lack of traffic data that suggest a need for such a corridor, and that none of the Congressional enactments make any such suggestion for I-69.

• The DEIS makes no attempt to analyze the potential environmental impacts that an I-69 multimodal corridor as compared to simply upgrading existing rights of way.

• The DEIS has also largely ignored the potential impacts to natural resources, including agricultural land, from the construction of a new I-69 corridor.

“We encourage all of our members to let the Texas Department of Transportation know how they feel about this, especially since it has the potential to so negatively impact our industry,” Mazurek said.