Walker Highway Wrecking Ball Degrades The Environment, Sticks Local Taxpayers With Bill
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) says it won't include a transit component in the $1.7 billion Zoo Interchange widening and rebuilding plan.
But toxic storm water runoff ponds...on the Milwaukee County Grounds, filled wetlands, and on top of a bike trail and Monarch Butterfly habitat...to be maintained by County taxpayers as part of the plan:
WisDOT says "yes' to that.
Preservationists say "no," and urge attendance and comments at the two public meetings set for the plan on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Details below:
ZOO INTERCHANGE PUBLIC HEARING
Tues., March 22nd (2-7pm) & Wed., March 23rd (4-8pm)
Tommy Thompson Youth Center, 640 N. 84th St.,
West Allis State Fair Park, Gate #5
DOT Stormwater proposals:
· A three-acre toxic stormwater pond instead of nectaring plants on the South Berm
of the Monarch Trail, with the surrounding wetlands filled in by excavation.
· The Oak Leaf Bike Trail at Underwood Creek Pkwy replaced by a five acre pond.
· Four acres clear-cut for a pond on the historic Honey Creek Parkway.
Losing 12 acres of county parkland to toxic ponds for the Zoo Interchange is bad enough
with salt, and heavy metals from vehicle exhaust and brake wear. But there's more:
Milwaukee County taxpayers will be responsible for all pond maintenance and liability.
There are alternatives:
Permeable pavement for highway shoulders, roadside swales with catchment tunnels, underground cisterns (eg, I-94 by the airport), bio-filtration fields.
Let DOT know that you don't want county parkland used for stormwater ponds.
> Come to the hearings and submit a DOT Comment Form. > Mail a form from on-line: www.sefreeways.org
Deadline: Comments must be postmarked by April 4, 2011.
You can view the three ponds from the June 2009 draft EIS.
Look for the blue rectangle/trapezoid.
County Grounds: Exhibit 2-17 (South Berm of the Monarch Trail)
Honey Creek Parkway: Exhibit 2-12 (Nat. Reg. Hist. Places):
Underwood Creek Pkwy: Exhibit 2-7 (Oak Leaf Bike Trail, S. of I-94):
Questions: Contact Dianne Dagelen, Conservation Chair:
1 comment:
Perhaps it is time for old-fashioned public protests about such things as the loss of 12 acres of public parkland.
and the failure to include transit options. Absolutely inexcusable. Irresponsible.
On second though, no, it is time. No "perhaps" about it.
And perhaps those "old-fashioned protests" ae not so old. Witness what has taken place at the State Capitol and around the state in recent weeks.
It surely is time for legal and peaceful in-the-streets activism, paired with well thought out strategies for objecting to ideas that serve only the interests of those with money and which endanger our childrens' and grandchildren's futures.
We have the people, and we have the better vision. We must not roll over and let these things happen without objection.
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