Letter to Anthony Foxx, Secretary of the Department of Transportation - Review Period Extension on Virginia Avenue Tunnel EIS
Letter
Dear Secretary Foxx:
Thank you for the attention you, the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and other DOT agencies have paid to the proposed CSX Virginia Avenue Tunnel project as it has made its way through the environmental review process. As you know, District of Columbia residents and other members of the public have raised a number of concerns with the project. While they are searching through the over 2,600 pages of the Final Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for much-needed answers, I am concerned that residents will not have an opportunity to get copies of the Final EIS, review it and be heard on it if there is only one community meeting before the Record of Decision is issued.
The Final EIS is a very lengthy document, in five volumes. While I understand that copies of the Final EIS are being sent to persons who made comments to the Draft EIS and hard copies are being made available at the Southeast Neighborhood Libraries on 7th Street SE and Wesley Place SW, the CSX community office, the Arthur Capper Senior Center, the FHWA DC office, and at the D.C. Department of Transportation, I have heard from residents that copies are still inaccessible. These residents will be substantially affected, often negatively, by any construction on the Virginia Avenue Tunnel, and they need to be afforded sufficient time to review the documents and the ability to alert federal officials to any oversights.
For these reasons, I am requesting that the public review period for the Final EIS be extended from 30 days to at least 90 days, and that an additional community meeting be held so that residents can attend after being afforded an opportunity to actually review all of the contents of the Final EIS. D.C. residents should have an opportunity to provide substantive comments to the FHWA. I ask that this request be given full and fair consideration consistent with applicable law, rules, and regulations.
Sincerely,
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Source