[Vision2020] Missoula County Sues MDT Over Megaloads

Tom Hansen thansen at moscow.com
Tue Mar 29 20:20:48 PDT 2011


With thanks to B.H. for providing this item . . .

Courtesy of the Missoulian at:

http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_96165f9a-5a40-11e0-857e-001cc4c002e0.html

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Missoula County votes to sue MDT over Imperial Oil megaloads

By KIM BRIGGEMAN of the Missoulian
March 29, 2011 7:00 pm

Missoula County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to file a lawsuit
against the Montana Department of Transportation for what they called its
"insufficient analysis of the effects of moving hundreds of oversized
loads on Highways 12 and 200."

"I guess every time you stand in front of a big truck it's a gamble,"
commission chair Jean Curtiss said. "We were just trying to weigh whether
it was our responsibility, and we decided it was."

Curtiss said the county will be joined in the suit this week by other
groups, including the National Wildlife Federation. They seek an
injunction to halt MDT-approved road improvements to be funded by Imperial
Oil/ExxonMobil, including construction of turnouts and utility alterations
on Reserve Street in Missula.

The suit targets an environmental assessment and its accompanying finding
of no significant impact released by MDT for the Kearl Module
Transportation Project. The project, engineered by Imperial Oil, a
Canadian subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corp. and a major player in the oil
sands fields of Alberta, would transport 207 "megaloads" of processing
equipment at night through western Montana on highways 12 and 200.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown




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