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City of Missoula, Montana Item to be Referred to City Council Committee Committee: Public Works Committee Item: Resolution Commenting on MDT’s Draft Kearl Module Transportation Project Environmental Assessment Date: April 30, 2010 Prepared by: Jason Wiener Initiated by: Jason Wiener Action Required: Adopt a resolution commenting on the draft Kearl Module Transportation Project Environmental Assessment. Recommended Motion: The committee recommends the City Council adopt a resolution commenting on the draft Kearl Module Transportation Project Environmental Assessment. Timeline: Referral to committee: 4/30/10 Committee discussion: 5/5/10 Background and Alternatives Explored: Imperial Oil/Exxon has requested a permit to move 200 high/wide loads manufactured in Korea through Montana, including Missoula. In order to accomplish this, they propose establishing a corridor on state and US highways that will accommodate their permit and subsequent similar truck traffic. Because the project requires extensive construction on 300 miles of Montana highways, the Montana Dept. of Transportation required an environmental assessment (EA). The draft EA was released earlier in April and the 30-day comment period ends May 14. The draft EA misses significant impacts of the project because of the EA’s severely limited scope. The draft resolution highlights unevaluated and under-evaluated impacts as well as deficiencies in the environmental review process and urges MDT to address the deficiencies by drafting an environmental impact statement with joint programmatic review (involving all affected state and federal agencies) under the Montana Environmental Policy Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The people of Missoula will be significantly impacted by the direct effects of the proposed project and by the cumulative effects of establishing the corridor that will be left at the project’s conclusion. It is our duty as the policymaking body for the City to urge MDT to adopt a sufficient standard of review in order to adequately mitigate the impacts of Exxon’s activities. Financial Implications: None Attachments: Draft Resolution Kearl Module Transportation Project Environmental Assessment (large file: 10 MB)