By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Environmental group American Rivers has listed the Blackwater River on its annual list of “America’s Most Endangered Rivers” for 2024. The announcement made in mid April listed the main cause to be the construction of Corridor H.
The Parsons Advocate reached out to Jacob Flatley, a Senior Transportation Information Specialist with the Public Relations Division of the West Virginia Department of Transportation, Division of Highways, about the issue. Flatley said after consulting with Director of the Technical Support Division Travis Long and Chief Engineer of Development Jason Foster, Flatley issued the following statement on the report, “There are two routes under evaluation for the Corridor H, Parsons to Davis, both of which intersect the North Fork of the Blackwater River. While no routes bypass the North Fork without veering into Maryland, alternatives for crossing the North Fork include mitigation efforts to minimize potential ancillary impacts on the stream,” Long and Foster stated.
Olivia Miller of the West Virginia Highland Conservancy and Matt Marcus of the Blackwater Bicycle Association discussed the issues surrounding the American Rivers report and the construction of Corridor H with the Parsons Advocate. “Anyone can nominate a river to be a part of this report,” Miller said. “Their goal is to amplify voices of local people and communities who are speaking up for a river anywhere in the United States.”
Miller said the report categorized the Blackwater as a river “at a crossroads” based on the WVDOH’s upcoming route determination. “They call it a river at a crossroads that has a decision that would be made within the next year or two that would determine the fate of the river,” Miller said. “And in this scenario, it is the construction of our ROPA of Corridor H.”
Marcus said that another environmental study is the result of federal regulatory pushback. Marcus also said that the alternate route exploration was also a federal requirement. “They are going to put out a draft environmental impact statement that’s the next step,” Marcus said. “They’ve had their Notice of Intent and that was to notify everyone, ‘Hey,we’re doing another environmental impact statement’ and I think one of the reasons for that…is that they were always required to study an alternate route and they never really did. The federal government has always kind of bounced it back and said, ‘Hey, you need to study another route.’”
Marcus acknowledged the sentiment within the area that the project is being unnecessarily delayed by these studies. Marcus, who lives in Thomas, said he, like so many others, just wanted the project complete due to the noise and other issues connected to heavy tractor-trailer traffic. Marcus said that he feels that it is not the GoNorth movement that has delayed the construction, but the State failing to meet federal obligations. “Its not the GoNorth people that have delayed it,” Marcus said. “Its the State. They didn’t do what the federal government told them to do.”
Miller said that the State is required to explore other options and assess the least environmentally impactful solution through a federal act called the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). “The process that they have to go through is called the National Environmental Policy Act,” Miller said. “And that requires the study of alternatives and that is what gives it its merit, is that they have assessed all possible options and alternatives to best serve the communities and the environment and to cause the least amount of impact.”
NEPA is defined by their website as “The Magna Carta of Federal environmental laws” due to being the first established major environmental law by NEPA.gov. The law was signed into law in 1970 by then President Nixon. The NEPA website outlines the requirements of the act as, “NEPA establishes procedural requirements, applying that national policy to proposals for major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment by requiring Federal agencies to prepare a detailed statement on: (1) the environmental impact of the proposed action; (2) any adverse effects that cannot be avoided; (3) alternatives to the proposed action; (4) the relationship between local short-term uses of man’s environment and the maintenance and enhancement of long-term productivity; and (5) any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources that would be involved in the proposed action.”
Miller went on to say that there was never an official determination recorded by the Federal Highway Administration on the ROPA route. “There was never a record of decision made by the Federal Highway Administration to approve the ROPA that they put forth,” Miller said.
Marcus said that State enthusiasm to build contributed to “The Road to Nowhere” outside Bowden along Highway 33. Marcus described the history of the project outside Elkins. Marcus also said that the construction of that section destroyed springs that fed the trout hatchery in the area. “You’ve been to the Road to Nowhere between Bowden, along the Cheat there,” Marcus said. “That was when the State decided to go ahead and build it before they got Federal approval and it failed and it almost killed that trout hatchery down there with those big caves along the side of the road. They killed a couple of the springs that feed the State Trout Hatchery. All that combined, they had to redo it and it pushed it up here. So that’s the ancient history of it.”
The last Informational Workshop hosted by the WVDOH was held February 27th in Tucker County. Additional expected developments are scheduled as a Notice of Availability of the DEIS in May, a public hearing in June, the end of the DEIS comment period in July, issuance of Combined FEIS/ROD in December followed by the issuance of all remaining project permits and authorization decisions, should a build alternative be selected, in March of 2025.
The American Rivers list was reported as follows:
America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2024
#1: Rivers of New Mexico
Threat: Loss of federal clean water protections
#2: Big Sunflower and Yazoo Rivers (MS)
Threat: Yazoo Pumps project threatens wetlands
#3: Duck River (TN)
Threat: Excessive water use
#4: Santa Cruz River (AZ, Mexico)
Threat: Water scarcity, climate change
#5 Little Pee Dee River (NC, SC)
Threat: Harmful development, highway construction
#6 Farmington River (CT, MA)
Threat: Hydro dam
#7: Trinity River (CA)
Threat: Outdated water management
#8: Kobuk River (AK)
Threat: Road construction, mining
#9 Tijuana River (CA, Mexico)
Threat: Pollution
#10: Blackwater River (WV)
Threat: Highway development
More information on the Corridor H project is available on the WVDOH website with a site dedicated to updates on the Parsons to Davis project at https://transportation.wv.gov/highways/major-projects/Corridor-H/route/Pages/Parsons-to-Davis.aspx. The American Rivers “America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2024” list is available at www.AmericanRivers.org.
