"FedEx Piedmont Triad Airport hub opponents plan another challenge"

Monday, February 7, 2005

FedEx hub opponents plan another challenge
The High Point (NC) Enterprise


Opponents of the proposed FedEx Corp. cargo hub will make another attempt to
derail the controversial project next week during a hearing in Raleigh.

An attorney representing the hub opponents will seek to get the N.C.
Environmental Management Commission to negate a decision last year by an
administrative law judge to uphold the issuance of a state water-quality
certification for the project. By statute, the 19-member commission must
adopt or reject the ruling of the judge on the certification, which was
granted in 2003 to the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority. The commission is
scheduled to hear the matter during a meeting that begins at 9 a.m. Thursday
in the Archdale Building in Raleigh.

An administrative law judge rejected the hub opponents' challenge to the
water-quality certification issued by the N.C. Department of Environment and
Natural Resources last year. The certification was part of a 5-year
environmental review process that the airport authority had to complete
before site work began on the hub project and airport expansion a year ago.

Attorney David Clark of Greensboro, representing the Alliance for Legal
Action hub opposition group, said he plans to raise several concerns before
the commission, including potential flooding from runoff at the more than
1,000-acre project site and pollution of drinking water supplies. Clark said
that he thinks it's unlikely the commission would rule completely in the hub
opponents' favor. But he does hope that the commission would decline to
adopt the judge's ruling and grant a new hearing.

PTIA Executive Director Ted Johnson said Friday that airport officials had
no comment because the hearing involves potential legal matters.

Crews already have moved 1.4 million cubic yards of earth as part of the
site preparation.

Despite the work that has gone on for a year, Clark said that he still
believes the project should be stopped. "The airport has done that in the
face of this lawsuit," he said.


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