Source: Southern Maryland Independent News
Link: http://www.somdnews.com/stories/10222010/indylet141407_32378.shtml
Friday, Oct. 22, 2010
Letter to the Editor - Debra Krahling, Bryans Road
In the informative Oct. 13 article, “Political newbies tussle in Dist. 4,” commissioner candidate Bobby Rucci said of Charles County’s proposed cross-county connector:”I’m for it as long as it doesn’t hurt the environment.” I hope, then, that Mr. Rucci will take to heart what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended in December 2009 that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deny the wetland permit for the highway on environmental grounds: “The Service is concerned about the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of this proposed highway which extends across the watershed of the Mattawoman Creek, an important Chesapeake Bay resource. The Mattawoman Creek watershed is a hot spot for terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity and productivity, supported by significant tidal and non-tidal wetlands, extensive forest cover and high quality streams.”
Hopefully, Mr. Rucci will learn about the meaning of cumulative impacts and the environmental and economic consequences, as his opponent Don Derencin has. Consider highway-induced growth: the cross-county connector was planned years ago to link the failed Chapman’s Landing development to Waldorf. After the state purchased the land to become Chapman State Park, Charles County switched to Bryans Road as an excuse for the highway-induced new development.
