Comments regarding the CTP by Avram Friedman, Canary Coalition Director, 12/16/09

I'd like to bring some things to your attention that were not addressed in the report from the Jackson County Transportation Task Force. Comprehensive public transportation options were not considered.  And, overall health and environmental impact of the various options were not compared.   It has been expressed that the county should leave environmental impact issues to such agencies as the Army Corp of Engineers, the federal EPA and appropriate state agencies.  But, please be reminded that the levies in New Orleans prior to Katrina were designed and built by the Army Corp of Engineers,  the toxic waste ash dam on the Emory River near Kingston, Tennessee was approved by the Army Corp of Engineers and the EPA and more than 500 mountains in West Virginia, Kentucky and East Tennessee have been dynamited, lowered up to 1000 feet in the shameful practice of mountain top removal coal mining,  all with the approval of the Army Corp of Engineers and the EPA.   I urge this commission not to avoid the responsibility of considering health and environmental impact yourselves before approving the CTP.   This past summer, a temporary staff member of the Canary Coalition, Brian McCauley, a graduate student at Duke University, conducted and published a study on the concept of a state-wide light-rail system that would connect various campuses of the state university together from Wilmington on the coast to Cullowhee in the mountains, including all the major communities in-between.  Using Jackson County as the example, the report describes how the cost comparison between a light rail vs. new road construction is favorable; how existing corridors can be used eliminating the need for vast land acquisitions; how a public transportation system that connects Sylva to Waynesville to Asheville and beyond would relieve traffic on existing roads; how parking issues would be favorably impacted on campus and in town; how the health and environmental impact compare favorably for light rail; how more practical it is to consider public transportation for a growing population than it is to prepare for more automobile traffic in a world where fossil fuel supplies are growing increasingly uncertain; how more affordable it would be to collaborate with other counties and the state on a comprehensive public transportation system than it is for Jackson County to develop its own public transportation system. We submitted this report to the DOT and we were thanked.  But, it was never presented by the DOT to the Transportation Task Force for consideration.  And it wasn't mentioned to you in the final report.  I submit it to you now, asking you to take it under serious consideration and to advocate for it to our state representatives and senators, as well as to the DOT.   I also have a second study conducted by the Canary Coalition two summers ago that I'm going to submit and ask you to review.  It's entitled "Air Pollution Costs Jobs."  This study addresses the effects of air pollution on agricultural industries, the forestry industry, the tourist industry and on the productivity of virtually all workers in all businesses and industry in areas, such as ours, in which poor air quality is a serious issue.  For instance, you may be aware of the fact that one in three children between the ages of 1 and 14 in western North Carolina has suffered at least one asthma attack. But, you may not have realized that every time a child has to stay home from school, generally a parent also has to take off from work to stay home with that child. When this happens hundreds of thousands of times, as it does in our region, considerably reduced productivity adds up to higher prices for goods and services as it reduces quality, which, in turn makes products from our region less competitive in national and global markets. This reduces production and ultimately costs jobs to our region.   Literally paving the way for 10,000 more car trips each day through Jackson County, by building a wasteful and un-needed by-pass could have a significant negative impact on our already poor air quality.  Add that impact to a new mammoth coal-burning power plant Duke Energy is building just southeast of here, an expanded Jackson Paper plant that we now know is putting out a lot more than just steam, a Tuckaseegee Mills that might be burning toxic and polluting chicken litter near the downtown area and we are setting up ourselves and our children for a new respiratory wing at Harris Regional Hospital and spending more money on health care than we'll ever gain from new jobs in our community.  I urge you to exercise some vision and remove the by-pass from the CTP before approving it.  This community doesn't need it. Thank you, Avram Friedman