CAA: GA News, "EPA blasts Wisconsin airport expansion project"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Friday, September 13, 2002

EPA blasts airport expansion project
Agency wants to reduce damage to wetlands
By DON BEHM
The Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel


West Bend - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is criticizing a
proposed expansion of the West Bend Municipal Airport that would destroy
at least 54 acres of wetlands. Also, a state environmental group is
blasting the plan for its impact on Milwaukee River water quality.

The Wisconsin Wetland Association said the plan would result in the
greatest loss of wetlands at a single construction site in the state in
more than a decade.

"These wetlands protect downstream areas from floods, and they help to
maintain high water quality in the Milwaukee River," Executive Director
Charlie Luthin said. "We cannot afford to lose these wetlands."

The EPA says that if the project is not altered to reduce the impact on
wetlands, the agency will object to a federal permit for the work.

In response to the EPA, state transportation officials said they will
look for ways to reduce the potential environmental damage.

"We recognize the EPA's concerns are of the type that could stop the
project," said Jay Waldschmidt, an engineer with the Department of
Transportation's Environment Bureau in Madison.

A consultant will be hired to review the project's design and look for
ways to trim wetland losses, Waldschmidt said.

West Bend Mayor Michael Miller, however, said he is confident the
potential loss of wetland "would be reduced considerably" once the
department completed engineering design work.

"The department's initial proposal was a worst-case scenario," Miller
said.

EPA cites flaws

In written comments, the EPA regional office in Chicago says
transportation officials failed to justify adequately the need to extend
the primary airport runway.

The department's preliminary environmental assessment does not indicate
that safety is a problem for aircraft using the airport, Kenneth
Westlake, chief of the EPA environmental planning and evaluation branch,
says in the written comments.

The main runway, which is 4,495 feet long, would be extended to 5,500
feet under the proposal. The addition would require relocation of part
of state Highway 33 in an arc north of its current alignment.

The department also is proposing to widen Highway 33 to four lanes from
N. Trenton Road to a site 4,000 feet east of N. Oak Road. The EPA
questions why the extra two lanes are needed.

In addition to the filling of 54 acres of wetlands, the proposal would
require the clearing of 18 acres of forested wetlands, Westlake says.

"If this project moves forward as currently proposed, we would consider
these impacts to be significant and would recommend the development of
an environmental impact statement," he says. "In addition, we would
object to the Corps of Engineers' issuing a permit for this proposal."

The department needs approval from the Army Corps of Engineers to fill
the wetlands.

Nearly all of the wetlands to be destroyed, about 48 acres, lie in an
area that the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission has
designated as a primary environmental corridor because it provides
wildlife habitat and helps maintain water quality in the river.

"The sheer number of acres, the quality of the wetlands and their
regional significance to water quality point to a very difficult
permitting situation for the proposed airport expansion," the EPA says.

Survey to be conducted

But Waldschmidt said that the ability of the wetlands to help control
flooding or filter pollutants from water varies widely, and that the
department thinks it can convince the EPA that not all the wetlands need
to be saved.

The department will survey corporate users of the airport this fall as
part of its analysis of the costs and benefits of expanding the
facility, according to John Espie, an airport development engineer with
the department's Bureau of Aeronautics. The findings should help the
department make its case for the expansion, he said.

Survey information also is to be incorporated into a final environmental
assessment to be released in early 2003. Then the department will decide
whether to develop an environmental impact statement or issue a finding
of no significant impact, Espie said.

If the project receives federal, state and local permits, construction
would take place from 2005 to 2007.

City officials have said runway expansion will boost area corporations'
use of the airport.

Extending the main runway and installing special equipment also will
enable corporate jets to land at West Bend even in foggy or inclement
weather, Miller said.

Some Trenton residents near the airport, organized as Taxpayers Against
Airport Growth, have protested the airport plans at public meetings.


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