Posted on 09/26/2015 8:09:56 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Years ago, the Tokarski family gathered with friends around a kitchen table in an old Indiana farmhouse. They were discussing the looming construction of Interstate 69 and how they could possibly stop it.
The group suspected a project of such magnitude, an interstate route stretching across the southern half of Indiana, would cause severe environmental damage.
“We really had the project almost at a standstill until Mitch Daniels came into office,” said Thomas Tokarski, now the president of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads. “We still have huge amounts of support from the people in Indiana.”
Since that farmhouse meeting, Tokarski said his organization has gathered close to 150,000 signatures on a petition to close the portion of the interstate in Monroe County.
Nevertheless, construction recently began on section five of the interstate which follows State Road 37 from Martinsville to Bloomington.
“Sometimes you get something in your life that is really important and you just have to go with it, even if you know you’re not going to win,” Tokarski said.
Tokarski and his wife alone have sent over 40 complaints to the various government organizations responsible for monitoring the construction project.
“The continuing dumping of large amounts of sediment into surface streams is likely to have a major impact on aquatic life,” he wrote in a letter from September 2013. “Is anyone looking at the impacts of this massive amount of sediment into these ‘Waters of the US,’ and into the karst system in this area?”
Tokarski’s complaints were accompanied with photographs of canning jars filled with brownish-orange water and mud-covered creek beds.
Now, at the beginning of the newest section of I-69, his concerns are far from assuaged.
“This has been going on for years and the waters around here continue to be seriously polluted,” he said. “The karst terrain in this area is sensitive. There’s a lot of sinkholes and caves and things that the polluted water sinks into.”
Tokarski accused the Indiana Department of Environmental Management of not fulfilling its monitoring duties.
“You show them the pictures, the water samples and all they say is that all the control measures are in place, therefore there’s no violation,” Tokarski said. “They just repeat that even though you’re showing them that the system is broken.”
When Randy Braun, the IDEM inspection chief for the wetlands and stormwater section, described the system, he explained it centers more on inspecting the control measures at the construction areas rather than the effectiveness of those measures in the surrounding environment.
“It’s really more of a performance-based permit,” Braun said. “So what will happen is we will conduct periodic compliance inspections. We’re not necessarily going to monitor those receiving waters as much as we’re going to look at the performance of those practices onsite.”
Braun explained each site is issued a runoff permit that requires the person in charge of the project to plan measures to minimize the amount of sediment discharged from the area. Though those plans are largely enforced through self-monitoring practices, Braun noted they work with IDEM staff to develop the plan and an IDEM representative is often present at the site.
“There are precautions, but there’s always a possibility that there could be a bypass or something like that,” Braun said, referencing instances when sediment gets around protective barriers.
Barry Sneed, IDEM’s public information officer, said when runoff does get into streams, a vacuum truck is used to suck the sediment out.
“If it hasn’t been caught from a preventative measure, it’s been caught from a remediation measure after the fact when we inspect it,” Sneed said.
Braun said all complaints are recorded, responded to within two weeks and addressed appropriately. Due to the complaints submitted during construction of the last interstate segment, he promised that IDEM is taking extra time when planning section five.
Tokarski now recognizes he can’t stop I-69 from being built.
Even so, he vowed to continue fighting for a more environmentally friendly building process.
“Trying to take away highways in Indiana is like trying to take away guns or apple pie,” he said. “It’s God’s highway. When God comes back for the second coming, He’s coming in on I-69.”
DANG!
F*** gaia like a drunken prom date.
I love I69. Can’t wait until it is finished.
Jeez louis. This idiotic fight has been going on for at least a couple decades. Highways don’t kill the environment, commie morons. It’s sad that it was delayed at all.
If stopping this HWY, can save just one life, it is worth the effort. /s
It for the children!!!!
The new I-69 between Evansville and Indianapolis is a key component to the future economic vitality of southwestern Indiana, and will connect an entire region with improved access to jobs, education and healthcare.
Yep, those are all definitely BAD things,you know, improved regional access to jobs, education and healthcare. Better to avoid job, education and healthcare access. Therefore, might I suggest that a dirt bike path built along the same route as I-69 would be more environmentally sound?
Any one looking at a map of Indiana can see that Evansville, Henderson, KY, Owensboro, KY and that entire region will benefit greatly, economically from I-69. Let’s get it built.
The joke in southeast Indiana is you can’t get to Evansville from here
Even so, he vowed to continue fighting for a more environmentally friendly building process.
“Trying to take away highways in Indiana is like trying to take away guns or apple pie,” he said. “It’s God’s highway. When God comes back for the second coming, He’s coming in on I-69.”
Well, obviously Tokarski - like almost all socialist Gaia-worshippers - doesn't really want God to come down I-69, does he
“Sometimes you get something in your life that is really important and you just have to go with it, even if you know you’re not going to win,” Tokarski said”
New I-69 is already having a “Dramatic effect on the environment”.
It is bringing lots of JOBS and a measure of prosperity to a poor part of the state, that was hard to access. Liberals hate that.
“I love I69. Can’t wait until it is finished.”
Agreed...
It is 11 miles longer to take the new I-69 (When finished) to Nashville from Indianapolis, and it will be MUCH quicker than taking I-65.
It will end up taking a good percentage of traffic off of 65, which if anyone who drives it regularly can attest, can be a TRUE nightmare.
“The joke in southeast Indiana is you can’t get to Evansville from here”
We can say the same thing about Valparaiso, IN.
An east-west thruway has helped, but mostly it just gets travelers and goods through the area faster without stopping. It's where I was born and raised. Between Erie, PA and Binghamton, NY it's Nagasaki 1946, business-wise. But truly beautiful country as a place to live, if you can find work.
Until I read that there was mud in the creek beds, I was for the project. Mud people, how can you be for mud in a creek bed. /s
I-69 will go to Memphis, not Nashville.
They really need to do some drug testing in Indiana. My 2 year old could draw a straighter right-of-way for a highway than those pot-heads did.
But I guess it’s still better than nothing.
I-69 connects the Canadian border with the Mexican border, and connects to roads in Canada and Mexico, which falls under the category of "integrating infrastructure", which some conspiracy kooks say is building the NAU.
At the north end of I-69 is Port Huron, Mich. The busiest US/CN crossing.
At the south end, in the lower Rio Grand Valley, is a grid of interstates that include I69C, I69E, I37, I2, I10, I35 to connect Laredo(the busiest US/Mex port), McAllen, and Brownsville to Port Huron.
This is just a single road of many that is part of reconfiguring the US road system and rails that began with the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991(ISTEA pronounced Ice Tea) and pushed along by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009(the Obama stimulus). Obama gave Texas $2.5 billion for roads, plus the money for improvements to ports(Houston and Galveston).
This is going on all over the world.
That Tokarski guy is right. This whole country is already a vast, lifeless wasteland because of all of those other interstates—a little less so due to US highways.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.