Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sierra Club to drop lawsuit over U.S. 95

The Sierra Club is dropping its lawsuit that had put the brakes on the widening of U.S. 95 in the Las Vegas Valley, officials said this morning.

Nevada transportation officials are set to sign a deal with the environmental advocacy group that gives the Federal Highway Administration and state Transportation Department the green light to move ahead with the $370 million project that would expand the highway from six to 10 lanes.

A lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club in 2002 had stalled the project after the environmental protection group alleged the agencies did not adequately consider the health effects from increased air pollution along the widened interstate.

The settlement hinges on a plan in which NDOT and the Federal Highway Administration will pay to provide greater safeguards against air pollution at three schools that are near the highway.

It calls for installation of air filters and monitoring equipment at Western High School as well as Fyfe and Adcock elementary schools. The filters, designed to reduce any airborne toxins that may come from the widened highway, will cost roughly $1.25 million over three years, according to a Sierra Club statement.

In exchange for the group dismissing its claims, the government agencies also must set aside another $1 million by August 2006 to retrofit Clark County School District buses to reduce diesel emissions and relocate three portable buildings and the kindergarten playground at Fyfe so that they will be farther from the highway, according to the settlement.

The agreement also calls for a program of "outreach and education to reduce idling time of diesel vehicles" and "a major study to monitor vehicle emissions at five highway locations across the country to determine the levels and behavior of toxic air pollution from motor vehicles."

The agreement should allow the expansion of the often jammed section of the freeway to be completed in 2007, officials said. It had originally been expected to open in late 2006.

Brian Keeter, a spokesman for the highway administration, said the compromise would help all parties move forward.

"In essence, the final agreement that was worked out is good on all counts," he said. "There are some measures in terms of learning about air quality that will pay dividends."

The deal is expected to be filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals this afternoon. Officials anticipate it will then be remanded to Clark County District Court so that the lawsuit can be dismissed, Keeter said.

Transportation Department and Sierra Club officials confirmed in May that the adversaries had been in talks to hammer out an agreement to the longstanding lawsuit. Government agencies had claimed that the lawsuit was costing Nevada taxpayers $7 million a year but had refused to provide specifics to support that allegation.

Tara Smith, conservation organizer for the Southern Nevada Sierra Club, said the agreement was reached last week but referred comments to the group's lawyers who were not immediately available for comment this morning.

In May a measure designed to keep the U.S. 95 project rolling was introduced by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., as an amendment to the $295 billion highway and transit project bill.

Ensign spokesman Jack Finn credited the amendment, which gave the federal government the go-ahead to proceed despite the pending lawsuit by saying the project met all requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, with speeding the negotiations between the state and the environmental advocacy group.

"He (Ensign) had become very frustrated with the pace this thing was going," Finn said. "... The bottom line is that the commuters are the ones to win."

The Regional Transportation Commission in October filed an amicus brief to join the Federal Highway Administration in fighting the lawsuit. The "friend of the court" brief said Sierra Club demonstrated a "lack of understanding" of the project's benefits for the valley.

RTC General Manager Jacob Snow was in Washington, D.C., this morning and was unavailable for comment, RTC spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said.

The Sierra Club in March 2003 submitted a proposal to the highway administration outlining a series of possible compromises, which included possible increases in the number of air monitors along the five-mile corridor, government efforts to increase carpooling for those who work and live along the highway and reducing the speed limit to 55 mph.

The project was stalled last July after a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed the Sierra Club to delay the project until the court heard its appeals to shut down the expansion.

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