NORTH SHORE ROAD – GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
In 1941 the country was engaged in massive build-up for war. TVA was focused on greater electricity production for such users as the aluminum smelters at Maryville, TN. On December 5th, 1941, the House of Representatives passed a bill appropriating funds for the construction of Fontana Dam on the Little Tennessee River in western North Carolina. The Senate acted on December 9th, and the bill was signed into law on December 17th. Work commenced immediately. TVA quickly learned that the reservoir would flood about three quarters of the length of a state road, NC 288. That road was the only access for owners and residents of land along the northern shore of the reservoir. The War Production Board refused to release manpower or materials for the reconstruction of the road above the water line.
NC 288 was originally built by the Forney Creek Road District, using funds from a bond issuance. It defaulted on the bonds, and the obligation was assumed by Swain County , N.C. The State of North Carolina then took responsibility for maintenance of the road, giving it the designation of NC 288.
Faced with the inability to rebuild the road, TVA decided to acquire all the private land serviced by it. That would extinguish all rights to the road. The land served by NC 288, some 44,400 acres, was in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park acquisition boundary, but had not been acquired due to lack of funds. Swain County was entitled to compensation for the taking of its road, the bonds for which it was still obligated to pay.
To accomplish its task, TVA, The Department of the Interior, the State of North Carolina and Swain County , NC entered into a contract, known as the 1943 Agreement. TVA agreed to acquire the 44,400 acres of land, and to transfer them to Interior, for incorporation in the Park. Interior agreed that after the war it would build a new road, part of its “Around the Park” project, having a width of at least 20 feet and a dustless surface. North Carolina agreed to donate $100,000 toward the acquisition costs of the land. Swain County agreed to accept the new road instead of monetary compensation.
In 1948 Interior built a 0.93 mile segment of the proposed road at the end of Fontana Dam. By 1962 it had built, in several segments, an additional 6.2 miles at the other end of the project, near Bryson City , NC . Interior was worried about the damage being caused by the construction, and convened a panel of experts to examine it. In April 1962 the panel reported “[T]he damage to the landscape and natural park values is so severe and the future maintenance will be so great that the Service should hold in abeyance the plans for [the] project. . . .” And it further concluded: “The committee is of the opinion that continuation of such damage to natural park values is indefensible from either the standpoint of conservation or visitor use.”
After that, Interior requested no more funding for the construction.
Congressman Charles Taylor (R. NC) in whose district this land lies, silently attached a rider to the Department of Transportation Appropriations Act for 2001, appropriating $16 million for further construction of this road. Faced with that, Interior has commenced work on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on further road construction. The purpose and need of the EIS is “to discharge and satisfy any obligations on the part of the United States that presently exist as a result of the 1943 Agreement.” That statement sets the stage for the process.
The EIS has reached the point where it has identified five alternatives. Two of these involve road construction and one chooses a cash settlement in lieu of any road construction. In more detail those are:
1. A “partial-build” alternation that would extend the existing road an additional 4 to 8 miles and add a new destination development at its end.
2. A “full build” alternative that would extend the existing road 29 to 38 miles. One optional routing, across the top of Fontana Dam on an existing roadway, is not likely to be chosen because of national security concerns. The full-build alternative would require construction of up to three bridges across embayments where the water is too deep to use ordinary pier supports. Those crossings would utilize “non-conventional structures” (defined as steel-arch bridges and cable-stayed bridges) with spans ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 feet, and height above footings of 300 to 600 feet. [The Brooklyn Bridge has a span of 1,595 feet.]
3. A cash settlement alternative providing for payment of $52 million to Swain County . All of the proposed construction lies in Swain County , N.C. Swain County is a signatory party to the 1943 Agreement. The Commissioners of Swain County, by a vote of 4-1 have resolved to ask for the cash settlement in lieu of any further construction.
Why a cash settlement? Since the “purpose and need” of the EIS is to resolve the 1943 Agreement issue, the position of Swain County as a signatory is critical. The county has repeatedly stated to the National Park Service (NPS) that the only satisfaction of the 1943 Agreement it will consider is a cash settlement. The State of North Carolina is also a signatory of the 1943 Agreement. Governor Mike Easley has notified the NPS that he supports the cash settlement. The Board of Aldermen of Bryson City, the county seat, unanimously supports this stand.
A group of local residents have formed their own organization, Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County. It is waging a strong campaign in support of the cash settlement.
The major national conservation organizations, and the regional and local conservation organizations strongly support the Swain County Commissioners and the cash settlement alternative.
Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County suggested the $52 million settlement sum. It employed a CPA to calculate the present value of the road, taking its value in the 1940’s and adjusting it for interest it would have earned and for inflation. Swain County proposes that the principal be lodged with an agency of the State of North Carolina , and that it only be allowed to spend the interest. The principal could only be spent on approval by a vote of two-thirds of the registered voters of the county. The proposed cash settlement, invested at five percent, would yield the county $2.6 million a year. In its 2004-2004 budget, the county expects of collect $2,684,365 in ad valorem taxes, almost the same amount.
A cash settlement is the only alternative that causes absolutely no damage to the environment
Why the road should not be built. The law establishing the National Park System mandates that parks be managed so as to leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. Forcing a road through the largest unroaded tract of mountain land in the east violates that principle.
In nominating the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the World Heritage List, NPS stressed that the park was an outstanding example of “significant ongoing biological evolution,” and that the value of the gene pools protected was “beyond estimation.” A road would severely disrupt those ongoing natural processes.
Among other destructive forces unleashed by road construction would be:
• Exposure of rock containing iron pyrite throughout its course, creating a danger of sulfuric acid leaching, which would sterilize any stream it entered;
• Crossing terrain consisting of numerous precipitous finger ridges which would require massive cuts and fills in unstable rock and soil, with giant retaining walls proposed to limit their extent;
• Detriment to interior habitat favored by neotropical migratory birds;
• Severe degradation of intangible values, such a beauty and solitude which now prevail;
• To create a orphan strip, cut off from the mix of ongoing evolution;
• To open up another part of the park to poaching, vandalism of grave sites and looting of archeological sites;
• Subjecting the Appalachian Trail, also a unit of the National Park Service, to an increase in noise, increase in degrading visual impacts and to raise significant safety issues.
Cost. The cost estimate for construction of the “full-build” alternative is now
$374 million. That’s more than seven times the amount of the proposed cash settlement. NPS concedes the $374 million does not include all mitigation and enhancement costs. Initial estimates are usually low, and the estimated cost of this road is certain to increase. A comparable road, twenty miles of US 64 in the Ocoee River gorge, through similar acidic rock and rough, precipitous terrain, is estimated to cost $2 billion for a four-lane highway. Building just two lanes of it, at $1 billion, is a better guide to what this road is likely to end up costing.
If built, road construction would take a minimum of 15 years. After completion, it would yield to the Swain County treasury, through sales tax collections, $355,000 a year, plus a possible $200,000 in additional property taxes. [Note that Swain County receives 2 ½ cents of the sales tax, but no funds from the motor fuels tax or the lodging tax.] A cash settlement would give Swain County four times more revenue, and today, not 15 or more years in the future.
Swain and Graham Counties in North Carolina and adjoining Blount County in Tennessee are famous among motorcycle enthusiasts for their “blacksnake” roads. A portion of US 129 here is called the “Dragon’s Tail.” Bikers bring their machines to these roads by trailer from all over the county. Graham County spends more money rescuing injured bikers from its Cherohala Skyway and carrying them to the regional hospital than it gains in tourist revenue from the road. Should the North Shore Road be built, it would add another blacksnake road radiating from a central point in Swain County .
Construction of the road is sponsored by Congressman Charles Taylor, and by a small but vocal group of descendants of persons buried in cemeteries in the Park, who want a road for cemetery access. This despite the fact that the 1943 Agreement does not mention cemeteries in any place, despite the fact that in 1943 the then living descendants were given the option of having the graves moved, free of charge to cemeteries outside the Park, and despite the fact that they sued in federal court to require the road to be built, and lost in District Court, in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and had a further appeal denied by the U.S. Supreme Court. NPS already provides access for these visitors by a free ferry service across Fontana Lake and by vans on administrative roads inside the park.
In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court, in passing on the validity of the 1943 Agreement said:
“The cost of public projects is a relevant element in all of them, and the government, just as anyone else, is not required to proceed oblivious to elements of cost. [Citation omitted.] And when serious problems are created by its public projects, the Government is not barred from making a common sense adjustment in the interest of all the public."
A cash settlement with Swain County is the common sense alternative. It saves a huge amount of money while protecting the environment from all damage.
Please write the EIS Study Team and let them know you support the monetary settlement alternative. The address is: North Shore Road Project, Great Smoky Mountains National Park , P.O. Box 30185 , Raleigh , N.C. 27622 . An e-mail can be sent to them at northshoreroad@arcadis-us.com. There should be a reference in the subject line to North Shore Road EIS Project .
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10 April 2005. Ted Snyder. For more information, tedsnyder@nuvox.net, or 864/638-3686.
