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STOP THE NORTH SHORE ROAD – GREAT SMOKY
MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
WildLaw Filed Extensive Comments
On behalf of Appalachian Voices, the Carolina
Mountain Club, Southern Appalachian Biodiversity
Project, Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, the
Southern Highlanders, and Wild South, WildLaw
submitted 50 pages of detailed comments to the
National Park Service on the proposed North Shore
Road.
The comments are available here (462 KB PDF).
North Carolina Governor Mike Easley also filed
excellent comments against the road.
His letter is
available here.
For more information, contact WildLaw Senior
Staff Attorney Steve Novak at
WildLawNC@aol.com.
The DEIS and more information from the Park
Service is available at
www.northshoreroad.info.
The proposed 34-mile road would breach the
largest unbroken tract of mountain forest on federal
land in the East, leaving a gash on the landscape
that would be visible for miles. Cutting through the
most rugged section of the park, the road could
include three massive bridges, each one roughly the
length of the Brooklyn Bridge. Among other impacts,
the road would bisect the Appalachian National
Scenic Trail and be visible for many miles along the
AT, destroy 28 miles of the Benton MacKaye Trail,
pose a serious threat to 140 pure mountain streams
due to polluted runoff from exposure of the acidic
rock in the area, and harm vital habitat for a
multitude of forest species including black bear and
migratory songbirds.
The World Conservation Union has judged the Park:
“The most important natural area in the eastern US …
of world importance as an example of temperate
deciduous forest. [I]ts floristic diversity is
unmatched in any other protected area of its size in
the temperate world.”
The National Park Service has publicly
acknowledged in the past that the highway would
serve no transportation need, and would jeopardize
the agency’s mission to protect the rich biological
and cultural resources of the Park. The National
Park Service began construction of a replacement
road in the 70s, but quit after completing seven
miles due to the extreme environmental damage and
exorbitant costs.
The boondoggle road would cost $ 589.7 million
dollars to build and its maintenance would add $14
million in maintenance and operation costs to the
Park’s existing $ 11.5 million operating shortfall.
The impetus for the road is to compensate Swain
County, NC, for the loss of a county road in 1943
when the federal government built a major dam that
created Fontana Lake, but Swain County does not want
the road and is willing to support a payment of $52
million—a fraction of the cost to build the road.
The highway is opposed by dozens of local,
regional and national groups, as well as North
Carolina Governor Mike Easley, Tennessee US Senator
Lamar Alexander, the local Swain County
Commissioners, the Bryson City Alderman, and local
civic leaders in this rural part of western North
Carolina.
SAFC has photographs available for media use.
Go to:
http://www.safc.org/campaigns/NSR_photo_gallery.php
Background
In 1941 the country was engaged in massive
build-up for war. TVA was focused on greater
electricity production for such users as the
aluminum smelters at Maryville, TN. On December 5th
1941 the House of Representatives passed a bill
appropriating funds for the construction of Fontana
Dam on the Little Tennessee River in western North
Carolina. The Senate acted on December 9th, and the
bill was signed into law on December 17th. Work
commenced immediately. TVA quickly learned that the
reservoir would flood about three quarters of the
length of a state road, NC 288. That road was the
only access for owners and residents of land along
the northern shore of the reservoir. The War
Production Board refused to release manpower or
materials for the reconstruction of the road above
the water line.
NC 288 was originally built by the Forney Creek
Road District, using funds from a bond issuance. It
defaulted on the bonds, and the obligation was
assumed by Swain County, N.C. The State of North
Carolina then took responsibility for maintenance of
the road, giving it the designation of NC 288.
Faced with the inability to rebuild the road, TVA
decided to acquire all the private land serviced by
it. That would extinguish all rights to the road.
The land served by NC 288, some 44,400 acres, was in
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park acquisition
boundary, but had not been acquired due to lack of
funds. Swain County was entitled to compensation for
the taking of its road, the bonds for which it was
still obligated to pay.
To accomplish its task, TVA, The Department of
the Interior, the State of North Carolina and Swain
County, NC entered into a contract, known as the
1943 Agreement. TVA agreed to acquire the 44,400
acres of land, and to transfer them to Interior, for
incorporation in the Park. Interior agreed that
after the war it would build a new road, part of its
“Around the Park” project, having a width of at
least 20 feet and a dustless surface. North Carolina
agreed to donate $100,000 toward the acquisition
costs of the land. Swain County agreed to accept the
new road instead of monetary compensation.
In 1948 Interior built a 0.93 mile segment of the
proposed road at the end of Fontana Dam. By 1962 it
had built, in several segments, an additional 6.2
miles at the other end of the project, near Bryson
City, NC. Interior was worried about the damage
being caused by the construction, and convened a
panel of experts to examine it. In April 1962 the
panel reported “[T]he damage to the landscape and
natural park values is so severe and the future
maintenance will be so great that the Service should
hold in abeyance the plans for [the] project. . . .”
And it further concluded: “The committee is of the
opinion that continuation of such damage to natural
park values is indefensible from either the
standpoint of conservation or visitor use.”
After that, Interior requested no more funding
for the construction.
Congressman Charles Taylor (R. NC) in whose
district this land lies, silently attached a rider
to the Department of Transportation Appropriations
Act for 2001, appropriating $16 million for further
construction of this road. Faced with that, Interior
has commenced work on an Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) on further road construction. The
purpose and need of the EIS is “to discharge and
satisfy any obligations on the part of the United
States that presently exist as a result of the 1943
Agreement.” That statement sets the stage for the
process.
The EIS has reached the point where it has
identified five alternatives. Two of these involve
road construction and one chooses a cash settlement
in lieu of any road construction. In more detail
those are:
1. A “partial-build” alternation that would
extend the existing road an additional 4 to 8 miles
and add a new destination development at its end.
2. A “full build” alternative that would extend
the existing road 29 to 38 miles. One optional
routing, across the top of Fontana Dam on an
existing roadway, is not likely to be chosen because
of national security concerns. The full-build
alternative would require construction of up to
three bridges across embayments where the water is
too deep to use ordinary pier supports. Those
crossings would utilize “non-conventional
structures” (defined as steel-arch bridges and
cable-stayed bridges) with spans ranging from 1,500
to 3,000 feet, and height above footings of 300 to
600 feet. [The Brooklyn Bridge has a span of 1,595
feet.]
3. A cash settlement alternative providing for
payment of $52 million to Swain County. All of the
proposed construction lies in Swain County, N.C.
Swain County is a signatory party to the 1943
Agreement. The Commissioners of Swain County, by a
vote of 4-1 have resolved to ask for the cash
settlement in lieu of any further construction.
Why a cash settlement? Since the “purpose and
need” of the EIS is to resolve the 1943 Agreement
issue, the position of Swain County as a signatory
is critical. The county has repeatedly stated to the
National Park Service (NPS) that the only
satisfaction of the 1943 Agreement it will consider
is a cash settlement. The State of North Carolina is
also a signatory of the 1943 Agreement. Governor
Mike Easley has notified the NPS that he supports
the cash settlement. The Board of Aldermen of Bryson
City, the county seat, unanimously supports this
stand.
A group of local residents have formed their own
organization, Citizens for the Economic Future of
Swain County. It is waging a strong campaign in
support of the cash settlement.
The major national conservation organizations,
and the regional and local conservation
organizations strongly support the Swain County
Commissioners and the cash settlement alternative.
Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County
suggested the $52 million settlement sum. It
employed a CPA to calculate the present value of the
road, taking its value in the 1940’s and adjusting
it for interest it would have earned and for
inflation. Swain County proposes that the principal
be lodged with an agency of the State of North
Carolina, and that it only be allowed to spend the
interest. The principal could only be spent on
approval by a vote of two-thirds of the registered
voters of the county. The proposed cash settlement,
invested at five percent, would yield the county
$2.6 million a year. In its 2004-2004 budget, the
county expects of collect $2,684,365 in ad valorem
taxes, almost the same amount.
A cash settlement is the only alternative that
causes absolutely no damage to the environment
Why the road should not be built. The law
establishing the National Park System mandates that
parks be managed so as to leave them unimpaired for
the enjoyment of future generations. Forcing a road
through the largest unroaded tract of mountain land
in the east violates that principle.
In nominating the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park for the World Heritage List, NPS stressed that
the park was an outstanding example of “significant
ongoing biological evolution,” and that the value of
the gene pools protected was “beyond estimation.” A
road would severely disrupt those ongoing natural
processes.
Among other destructive forces unleashed by road
construction would be:
• Exposure of rock containing iron pyrite
throughout its course, creating a danger of sulfuric
acid leaching, which would sterilize any stream it
entered;
• Crossing terrain consisting of numerous
precipitous finger ridges which would require
massive cuts and fills in unstable rock and soil,
with giant retaining walls proposed to limit their
extent;
• Detriment to interior habitat favored by
neotropical migratory birds;
• Severe degradation of intangible values, such a
beauty and solitude which now prevail;
• To create a orphan strip, cut off from the mix
of ongoing evolution;
• To open up another part of the park to
poaching, vandalism of grave sites and looting of
archeological sites;
• Subjecting the Appalachian Trail, also a unit
of the National Park Service, to an increase in
noise, increase in degrading visual impacts and to
raise significant safety issues.
Cost. The cost estimate for construction of the
“full-build” alternative is now
$590 million. That’s more than seven times the
amount of the proposed cash settlement. NPS concedes
the $590 million does not include all mitigation and
enhancement costs. Initial estimates are usually
low, and the estimated cost of this road is certain
to increase. A comparable road, twenty miles of US
64 in the Ocoee River gorge, through similar acidic
rock and rough, precipitous terrain, is estimated to
cost $2 billion for a four-lane highway. Building
just two lanes of it, at $1 billion, is a better
guide to what this road is likely to end up costing.
If built, road construction would take a minimum
of 15 years. After completion, it would yield to the
Swain County treasury, through sales tax
collections, $355,000 a year, plus a possible
$200,000 in additional property taxes. [Note that
Swain County receives 2 ½ cents of the sales tax,
but no funds from the motor fuels tax or the lodging
tax.] A cash settlement would give Swain County four
times more revenue, and today, not 15 or more years
in the future.
Swain and Graham Counties in North Carolina and
adjoining Blount County in Tennessee are famous
among motorcycle enthusiasts for their “blacksnake”
roads. A portion of US 129 here is called the
“Dragon’s Tail.” Bikers bring their machines to
these roads by trailer from all over the county.
Graham County spends more money rescuing injured
bikers from its Cherohala Skyway and carrying them
to the regional hospital than it gains in tourist
revenue from the road. Should the North Shore Road
be built, it would add another blacksnake road
radiating from a central point in Swain County.
Construction of the road is sponsored by
Congressman Charles Taylor, and by a small but vocal
group of descendants of persons buried in cemeteries
in the Park, who want a road for cemetery access.
This despite the fact that the 1943 Agreement does
not mention cemeteries in any place, despite the
fact that in 1943 the then living descendants were
given the option of having the graves moved, free of
charge to cemeteries outside the Park, and despite
the fact that they sued in federal court to require
the road to be built, and lost in District Court, in
the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and had a
further appeal denied by the U.S. Supreme Court. NPS
already provides access for these visitors by a free
ferry service across Fontana Lake and by vans on
administrative roads inside the park.
In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court, in passing on
the validity of the 1943 Agreement said:
“The cost of public projects is a relevant
element in all of them, and the government, just as
anyone else, is not required to proceed oblivious to
elements of cost. [Citation omitted.] And when
serious problems are created by its public projects,
the Government is not barred from making a common
sense adjustment in the interest of all the public."
A cash settlement with Swain County is the common
sense alternative. It saves a huge amount of money
while protecting the environment from all damage.
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