All schematics are preliminary except as noted. A dispute over Houston's long-range highway plan that threatens federal funding for upcoming road projects, including the Katy Freeway expansion, may be reignited as early as this week. Two groups, Environmental Defense and the Sierra Club, sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last fall to force the strict standards upon local road planners. A court-ordered stay of that suit ends Thursday. Environmentalists say they are suing because the Houston region's plan essentially calls for too many new roads.
More roads leads to more traffic, they say, which means more smog.
H-GAC's transportation plan, written nearly two years ago, was devised to meet a limit of 195 tons of nitrogen oxide per day. But the state's new smog plan for Houston, likely to be accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency on about April 15, sets a limit of 151 tons per day from roadway sources. Ultimately, that disparity could cut off federal funding for future freeway expansion in an eight-county region, including the Katy Freeway widening and new sections of the Grand Parkway. Yet the issue has been largely ignored until very recently, say politicians who are growing increasingly concerned. Even as Texas sent its overall smog plan to the EPA last December, the disparity in Houston's transportation plan was a white elephant in the corner, one environmental official said.