Activists urge local environmentalists to join the fight against Interstate 3

South Carolina is not a bystander in the battle to stop a proposed super interstate, environmental activists say, and the time to join the fight is now.

“It’s important to speak up so South Carolina officials don’t get blindsided,” said Holly Demuth, executive director of the Stop I-3 Coalition.

Ms. Demuth joined Andrew Hunt, of the Athens, Ga.-based Joseph LeConte Group of environmental activists, to encourage about 50 members and visitors of the Sierra Club Foothills Group at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Clemson Tuesday to take up the fight.

The proposed Interstate 3 would connect the port of Savannah, Ga., with Knoxville, Tenn., with one possible route starting at the interchange of Ga. 21 and Interstate 95 and tracking north along the Georgia-South Carolina border. The interstate would bend west after passing through Hartwell and cut across the western tip of North Carolina. From there, the highway would intersect Interstates 40 and 75 just west of Knoxville.

It was proposed by former Ga. Rep. Max Burns in July 2004 as a way to link military installations throughout the Southeast along with the port of Savannah. It was later taken up by the late Ga. Rep. Charlie Norwood.

The federal Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005 included proposed corridors for both I-3 and Interstate 14 but no funding. I-14 would intersect I-3 near Augusta and proceed south of Atlanta to Natchez, Miss. In 2006, the Georgia legislature appropriated money to promote both projects.

As of now, the next step will be a study of the project by the Federal Highway Administration.

The cost of the project has been estimated as high as $25 million per mile, or as much as $50 billion, based on studies of highway construction costs in mountainous areas.

Ten governing bodies in the affected area, including the county commissions of White, Towns and Rabun counties in Georgia, and Clay and Macon counties of North Carolina, have passed resolutions in opposition.

One issue is that the proposed highway could serve as a transport route for nuclear waste from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory complex near Knoxville to the Savannah River Site nuclear complex near Augusta. Concerns are that the vagueness of plans for the proposed route puts the South Carolina mountains in danger of being despoiled if alternate routes are considered.

“One possible route considered could have it coming through Oconee County near Walhalla,” said Tom Manning, chairman of the Sierra Club Foothills Group. “We could end up with this thing in our backyard.”

Ms. Demuth said the vagueness of the plans has made it difficult for her group to determine who the backers are, because Georgia officials all distance themselves from it.

Of the 10 contenders in a special election to fill the late Rep. Norwood’s seat, all claim to oppose the interstate, she said.

“No one’s showing their cards about this,” she said.

She urged local environmentalists to contact U.S. Sens. Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham as well as U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett to oppose any move that would reroute the proposed I-3 through South Carolina.

“This is a highway that’s just not needed,” she said.