Maryland Route 200 - Environmental Mitigation

Environmental Mitigation

A major component of the ICC is environmental mitigation. In addition to work taking place near and in the right-of-way of the ICC, there are over 50 "off-site environmental and community improvement projects" that will be funded as part of the ICC engineering and construction budget.

In a letter to the editor of The Baltimore Sun, David Marks, a former official with the Maryland Department of Transportation, wrote that the SHA project team "...had the foresight to require substantial environmental improvements as part of the project, and they insisted on broad public input..."

One component of the mitigation is the replacement of parkland taken for the ICC with new land. Replacement lands intended to compensate for these losses include a large parcel of land in the Boyds area of Montgomery County owned by the Eugene B. Casey Foundation. However, the trustees of the Casey Foundation did not agree to the purchase of this parcel, so the State Highway Administration acquired the land by condemnation and the matter was reported as resolved in June 2008. In July 2008, controversy was reported on a similar subject. A 118-acre (0.48 km2) parcel of land near the intersection of MD 198 and Peach Orchard Road which had been condemned by the SHA in 1997 for possible use as the so-called Northern Alignment (Corridor 2) was conveyed to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission to compensate for parkland which will be taken by the ICC. The former owner, Winchester Homes, filed a lawsuit contending that the SHA must offer to sell this land back to Winchester, and in May 2008, Judge S. Michael Pincus of the Montgomery County Circuit Court ruled that "the SHA was contractually obligated to offer Winchester Homes the chance to buy back the property." It was further reported that the state filed an appeal in June 2008.

In the February 2008 edition of the Successes in Stewardship newsletter, the Federal Highway Administration stated:

Since environmental impacts were the major barrier to prior ICC planning efforts, the third EIS team redefined the project-development approach to explicitly include environmental stewardship as part of the project's stated purpose and need. In order to fulfill the ICC's stated purpose "to help restore the natural, human, and cultural environments in the project area from the adverse effects of past development," lead-agency staff used context-sensitive design approaches to minimize or altogether avoid adverse impacts to wetlands and streams in the development of project alternatives.

At least one section of the ICC was re-routed from the master-planned route to reduce environmental impact, though the re-routing led to additional residences having to be condemned as a result.

Eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) in the path of the ICC will be located with the aid of dogs trained to find them by scent and moved to other locations in Montgomery County near Boyds and Brookeville.

In a letter to the editor of The Gazette, SHA Administrator Neil Pedersen enumerated a list of environmental mitigation and community enhancements that SHA is funding as part of constructing the ICC.

The ICC is likely to force changes to the 14th hole of the Cross Creek Golf Club, which straddles the border between Montgomery County and Prince George's County. However, it was reported that the 14th hole was surveyed incorrectly, and part of it was mistakenly located on land set aside for the ICC.

In January 2009, it was reported that Eyes of Paint Branch (a group that has opposed the ICC) had recently demanded of the SHA that the contractors working to build the ICC comply with Montgomery County's regulations for the Upper Paint Branch Special Protection Area, which the State of Maryland has no legal obligation to follow.

Construction of the ICC has forced the National Capital Trolley Museum to relocate its car barns, shops, visitors center, and part of its track a short distance to the north. In 2006, the museum's development director made a public plea for relocation help and coordination in a Washington Post op-ed column. The museum suspended operations for relocation in December 2008 and resumed trolley rides in January 2010. In August 2009, the SHA held a public forum at the new and relocated trolley museum to describe the environmental mitigation aspects of the ongoing ICC construction project.

A major environmental concern along the entire ICC project is the impact of stormwater runoff on creeks and streams, during and after construction. Techniques and technologies to treat such water are known as best management practices (BMPs). State-of-the-art BMPs used along the ICC's construction project were described in an article in Land and Water magazine. Some of the methods being used to control runoff were described in a The Baltimore Sun "On the Outdoors" column, published after the writer toured several work areas along the ICC's right-of-way:

The ICC project employs teams of "stormbusters" to put down straw and grass seed and erect plastic silt fences in construction areas before it rains to prevent erosion. Solar-powered stream monitors give Baker and enforcement personnel a real-time reading of water conditions. Paved storm-water ditches in older neighborhoods abutting the highway will be replaced by grass-lined swales that will filter and cool the water before it enters tributaries.

The Sun column went on to describe financial incentives that will be paid to construction contractors that meet environmental goals and requirements.

As part of construction work, several archaeological sites have been found in the path of the ICC, including a Native American site near Georgia Avenue and Norbeck Road that contains artifacts dating to the Stone Age. and near US 29, the 19th century homestead of a freed slave, Melinda Jackson, containing numerous artifacts.