Thursday, May 31, 2007
Editorial: Buying swampland
Behind all the eye-rolling in Botetourt County, residents who need a wider highway might give some thought to the need for wetlands, too.
From the RoundTable blog
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Drivers who regularly negotiate the two, twisting lanes of pavement that are U.S. 220 north of Eagle Rock in Botetourt County must be sorely tempted to deride Virginia's transportation department.
At least a few are in full cry: Instead of widening their road, the geniuses at the Virginia Department of Transportation are building a swamp alongside.
Flabbergasted motorists should gear down the criticism and take a broader view.
Yes, the upgrade of that section of U.S. 220 is overdue. Yes, public safety fully justifies the project. Yes, lack of money has delayed it for years.
But the $3 million-plus that the highway department is spending to create 36 acres of wetlands and a 4,500-foot stream bed doesn't take a plug nickel from road-building money.
And the work being done now will pave the way for miles of highway to be built in the future. Perhaps it will even speed up the U.S. 220 project that has been so long stalled, provided available money ever catches up to rising costs: $40 million and counting.
The wetlands project is essential to future road-building because builders -- of roads, subdivisions, business parks, whatever -- have to replace any wetlands and streams their construction destroys. It's the law.
VDOT is putting acres worth of wetlands preservation credits in the bank, work that already will be done to compensate for losses in the James River basin when needed roadwork in the region finally can get under way.
Curmudgeons willing to concede that VDOT is not stupid but merely complying with environmental laws, might grumble that it is the law, then, that is stupid: It is diverting road construction money into swampland and putting ecological caretaking above public safety.
They'd be wrong again, this time in setting up a false choice.
The public needs safe roads and a healthy environment, which includes preserving wetlands. People looking to get through their days in safety easily can see the need for a wider road. The need for wetlands is not as immediately clear, but people do need them.
Scientists have come to understand the necessary work that wetlands do in cleaning water and controlling floods, as well as supporting a web of wildlife that affects, in ways known and unknown, the whole chain of life of which humankind is but one part.
Buying swampland, it turns out, is a wise investment -- not for developers, but for all of us.
