FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  July 18, 2011

Contacts:

Saoirse Charis-Graves, Citizens for Golden,

Pamela Gould, Citizens for Golden,

Proposed Fish and Wildlife Service Environmental Analysis Could Miss the Point About Harms from Beltway

Golden—As residents in surrounding communities prepare for a public meeting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be hosting later this week to discuss whether to trade some parts of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge for new adjacent property, some worry that the federal agency will gloss over the potential environmental impacts of the competing proposals that have been offered to purchase the transportation right of way along the eastern border of the refuge.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has received competing proposals to purchase a 300-foot wide right of way along the eastern border of the refuge, parallel to Indiana Street.  Some of those proposals involve possible acquisition of property on the western edge of the refuge as well.  The competing proposals have come from the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority (a consortium of Jefferson County and the Cities of Arvada and Broomfield) and the City of Golden.  The Parkway Authority was established to fund and build a multilane toll road along the eastern edge of the refuge; the City of Golden proposes to build a bike and pedestrian path in the right of way.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has announced an open house-style meeting at the Westminster City Park Recreation Center on Wednesday, July 20, from 5-8 pm. 

“It is important that citizens who are concerned about what will happen to the land around Rocky Flats come to the meeting on Wednesday and especially write their comments to the Fish and Wildlife Service,” said Saoirse Charis-Graves of the volunteer organization Citizens for Golden.

Background materials for the meeting have been made available in advance on the refuge’s website at http://www.fws.gov/rockyflats/

In those materials, the Fish and Wildlife Service describes the decision before it as being about a “proposed boundary expansion and a potential land exchange.”  In the range of alternatives described on posters that are intended for use at the public meeting, the Fish and Wildlife Service does not identify the buyer of the right of way under any alternative. 

Pamela Gould of Citizens for Golden said, “There is a huge difference in the impacts depending on whether the Fish and Wildlife Service sells to the Parkway Authority or the City of Golden, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at their website.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service is required by the National Environmental Policy Act, commonly referred to as NEPA, to consider all potential environmental consequences of expanding the refuge and selling the right of way.  The agency lists several of the environmental benefits of acquiring the Section 16 property in their announcement of the meeting and other accompanying materials.  These benefits include securing habitat for the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, an endangered species, and protecting a patch of dry tallgrass prairie, a rare vegetation community that occurs only in the Rocky Flats area.

“So far the Service has not said they will look at the negative impacts of letting the right of way be used for a highway instead of a bike path,” said Charis-Graves.  “but air pollution, stream contamination and noise disturbance of wildlife are all environmental impacts that need to be part of the analysis.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service says in their announcement of the meeting that comments from the public will “help determine the appropriate level of environmental review” for the proposed land deal.

Gould says that is the critical point she hopes concerned citizens can convey to the agency during the scoping period.

“You can’t make the environmental impacts look smaller by trying to look at the situation through a tiny peephole focused just on Section 16,” said Gould.  “Let’s call a spade a spade:  a highway is a giant environmental impact, especially when compared to a bike path.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service will be accepting public comments through July 29^th.  Comments can be mailed, faxed, or emailed to rockyflatsea@fws.gov

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