FReep this Smoky Mountain Impact Statement

Project Update The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is available for your review. The DEIS document has a main document section (Volume I) with five appendices. The Summary in Volume I provides an overview of the entire document. Technical details are presented in the main document and appendices. Public Hearings Scheduled The public hearings to comment on the DEIS have been scheduled for February 2 - February 13, 2006.

The upcoming public hearings will give you an opportunity to provide comments on the DEIS. While the DEIS includes an Environmentally Preferred Alternative, it does not identify a Preferred Alternative. The U.S. Department of the Interior has waived the NPS policy regarding the selection of a Preferred Alternative in the DEIS. Selection of the Preferred Alternative has been postponed to allow time for the public and resource agencies to review the DEIS.

We Need Your Input Comments on the DEIS will be considered in the selection of the Preferred Alternative and will be addressed in the Final EIS (FEIS). The deadline for submitting your comments is March 20, 2006.

We appreciate your interest in this project and look forward to your continued involvement throughout the EIS process.

History The North Shore Road Project has a long history, spanning nearly six decades. The agencies see the recent funding, and the planning process this action triggers, as an opportunity to resolve long, outstanding issues and enhance working relationships between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the park's gateway neighbors in Bryson City and Swain County, North Carolina.

In October 2000, Congress budgeted $16 million of Department of Transportation (DOT) appropriations to resume construction of the North Shore Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). Because the road would be constructed on federal land with federal money, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires the federal agencies involved in the project, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the National Park Service (NPS), to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Purpose The purpose of the proposed action is to discharge and satisfy any obligations on the part of the United States that presently exist as the result of the Memorandum of Agreement of October 8, 1943, between the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI); Tennessee Valley Authority; Swain County, North Carolina; and the state of North Carolina.

Public Hearing Schedule Interpreters for Hearing Impaired and Court Reporters Available at all Public Workshop

Thursday, February 2 Swain County High School Center for the Arts Auditorium 1415 Fontana Road Bryson City, NC

Monday, February 6 Robbinsville High School Auditorium 301 Sweetwater Road Robbinsville, NC

Tuesday, February 7 Asheville Renaissance Hotel Salon B One Thomas Wolfe Plaza Asheville, NC

Thursday, February 9 Knoxville Marriott Kentucky Room 500 Hill Avenue, SE Knoxville, TN

Monday, February 13 Gatlinburg-Pittman High School Auditorium 150 Proffitt Road Gatlinburg, TN

Please read the following and FReep this project to destroy the "largest roadless area and potential designated wilderness area east of the Mississippi River." PLEASE, when you write, ask that the area be proclaimed as WILDERNESS. With what little roadless areas we have in the East, and with the population growth (mostly from immigrants, legal and unlegal), this area and the areas of other "National Forests" -- see GATC -- need the voices of FreeRepublic to remain protected from roads and subsequent expansion of housing. THANK YOU for your help.

"Earlier this week, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP or Park) Superintendent's Office released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the North Shore Road Project. We reported on this serious threat to the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (AT) and the GSMNP in the winter of 2005. The DEIS has been anticipated for several months. Those who were tracking it closely were not expecting a recommendation for any of the alternatives studied to be included with the release of the statement. That was the case. Approval, possibly as high as from the the Secretary of the Interior's office, would have been required for the Park Superintendent to not make a recommendation for one of the studied alternatives. There were one non-action and four action alternatives, with the build something action alternatives having several variations. The recommendation has been deferred until after public comment has been received. The period for public comment starts immediately and closes March 20, 2006. There will be 5 public hearings in communities near the Park in this time, and comments in writing will be accepted. The fate of a large area of the Park, the largest roadless area and potential designated wilderness area east of the Mississippi River, and the AT there is in our hands. Those of us who love the Appalachian Trail and the Great Smoky Mountains must seize this rare opportunity to be heard.

The DEIS and comprehensive background information can be found at www.northshoreroad.info. The meetings schedule is given on the site. Where to mail comments is not specially stated at this time, but GSMNP Headquarters, 107 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738>/i> can be used. The DEIS, proper, is lengthy at 522 pages. There is a downloadable 46 page summary, however, and a hyper linked Table of Contents to specific areas of the main document on the site can be used to access additional details as wanted or needed.

The DEIS Summary contains little new information beyond what we had a year ago. There is just a great deal more detail. The cost of the road is still staggering, at as much as $589,700,000 in 2006 dollars for less than 35 paved miles, with the full build option. And, that is with little projected economic benefit to the area, post the construction phase. The DEIS addresses environmental impacts thoroughly. All of that is acknowledged to be negative, just to varying degrees depending on the alternative considered. None of the build alternatives would appear to be 100% satisfactory to the proponents of building the road. Social changes resulting from construction, should that proceed, to nearby communities are anticipated to be significant and adverse.

The one action alternative that is also a no-build alternative is the referred to as the Monetary Settlement. This is supported by virtually all concerned environmental and conservation groups, to include the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The Swain County Commissioners, signatory to the 1943 agreement driving all of this, have voted to accept this alternative, and would consider the whole issue resolved once payment was received. Please do go to the Web site above, research the issue, and submit comment as you see fit.

Denny Rhodes Conservation Director GEORGIA APPALACHIAN TRAIL CLUB

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