Opinion ID: 457075
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Environmental Review Process

Text: 9 The environmental review process the appellees undertook for the I-35W and I-30 projects, as they were required to do by a myriad of federal statutes 3 and implementing regulations, reveals a bizarre pattern of administrative indecision and/or confusion at best, or perhaps even public deception at worst. 10 At least in the early stages of the review process, the appellees unequivocally concluded that both projects would have significant adverse environmental effects, and they announced publicly that a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) would be prepared for each project. 4 In mid-1976, the appellees announced that an EIS would be prepared for the I-30 project. It is undisputed that, at that time, the Overhead, which actually is a part of I-30, was included in the I-30 project. 5 Mention is continually here made of the early inclusion of the Overhead in the I-30 project because it ultimately was changed over by the appellees into the I-35W project, even though I-35 is a north-south highway and the Overhead and I-30 of which the Overhead is a part are east-west highways. 11 In January 1978, the appellees similarly announced that an EIS would be prepared for the I-35W project, and they reaffirmed that the I-30 project mandated the preparation of an EIS. In March 1978, the appellees announced for the first time, and without explanation, that the I-35W project would have only some insignificant environmental effects and that a so-called Negative Environmental Declaration, rather than an EIS, would be prepared for that project. 6 At that time the appellees did not announce any change of the Overhead from the I-30 to the I-35W project. 12 In April 1978, the appellees conducted a preliminary, informational public hearing for the I-35W project, and in May 1978 they conducted a similar hearing for the I-30 project. The notices they published and distributed for each hearing did not say that the Overhead was included in the I-35W project. And while the exhibits displayed at the two meetings showed that the Overhead would be expanded, no exhibit suggested nor was anything said suggesting that the appellees considered the Overhead to be a part of the I-35W project. At the May hearing for the I-30 project, the appellees reasserted that an EIS would be prepared for that project. Between May and July 1978, in correspondence between both SDHPT and FHWA officials and regional and national FHWA officials, there is every indication that the Overhead was still included in the I-30 project, and there is no mention by any of these officials of any plan to shift the Overhead to the I-35W project. 13 In November 1978, the FHWA approved a Draft Negative Environmental Declaration for the I-35W project. The I-35W project, at that time, indisputably did not include the Overhead, and the Draft Negative Declaration unquestionably supports that conclusion. For example, the map included in the Draft Declaration purporting to show the Limits of [the] Proposed I.H. 35W Project excluded the Overhead from the project's limits, and neither the Overhead nor the areas adjacent to the Overhead were mentioned in the Draft Declaration. In addition, the appellees did not make or prepare any environmental test or study for any of the areas--residential, commercial, or historical--adjacent to the Overhead, whereas they made such tests and completed such studies for the areas alongside the eight-mile stretch of I-35W. 14 Before the Draft Negative Assessment for the I-35W project could gain final FHWA approval, the appellees needed to hold a public hearing and send a transcript of that hearing to the FHWA in Washington. 7 They scheduled the required public hearing for February 7, 1979, and on January 4, and February 1, 1979, published notices of that hearing in local Fort Worth newspapers. The appellees also mailed copies of the notice to various interested citizens, civic groups, and local governmental officials. The notices stated generally that the meeting was for the purpose of discussing the planned expansion of I-35W from I-30 on the north to I-20 on the south, and the improvements to various interchanges with the east-west roads. The notices neither implicitly nor explicitly mentioned either that the Overhead would be included in the I-35W, rather than the I-30 project, or that the plans to expand the Overhead would be the subject of any discussion at this meeting. 8 Copies of the notice were sent to individuals and businesses affected by the expansion of I-35W, but none were sent to persons or businesses affected by the Overhead expansion plans nor to public officials and private citizens who had specifically requested to be notified of any hearings concerning the Overhead. And the maps referred to in the public notice showed the Overhead outside the I-35W project's limits. 15 At the February 7, 1979, hearing, the SDHPT official presiding over the meeting mentioned for the first time publicly that the I-35W project would include a one-and-a-half mile section of I-30 that lies west of I-35W. The first half mile of I-30 extending west from I-35W contains a maze of ramps to and from the Mixmaster. The remaining mile or so, after the merging ramps have blended into I-30, constitutes the Overhead. Since prior to the February 7 hearing for the I-35W project the appellees had provided no notice that the Overhead had been shifted to the I-35W project, it is not surprising that no one concerned about the planned Overhead expansion attended that hearing. Instead, the comments made by members of the public at the hearing concerned increased noise levels on or near property adjacent to I-35W. 16 The appellees prepared and forwarded to the FHWA in Washington a transcript of the February 7 hearing, and on April 20, 1979, the FHWA approved the Final Negative Declaration for the I-35W project. The Final Negative Declaration was virtually identical to the Draft Negative Declaration, with one notable exception--the appellees had conducted one noise study in a single area zoned for commercial use approximately one block from the Water Garden. According to the appellees, that study revealed that the noise increases attributable to the additional traffic on the expanded Overhead, which would double the width and have twice the traffic capacity of the existing Overhead, would only be 3 dBA, an increase that is imperceptible to the average human. The appellees conducted no other studies concerning the possible, or even likely, environmental effects of the expanded Overhead. Significantly, no study was conducted concerning the potential visual effect the Overhead would have on either the Water Garden or the historic properties; no mention was made of historic buildings in the Final Negative Declaration; and the appellees in the Final Declaration neither mentioned nor documented their consideration of any alternative to the proposed Overhead expansion. 17 Consistent with their promise to prepare an EIS for the I-30 project (Overhead now excluded), the appellees in early 1980 prepared and released for public comment a draft EIS for that project.