Interstate 3 opponents ask why

By Carolyn Mathews

Janet Brown of Dahlonega, left, and Kathy Shelnut of Cleveland look at a poster displaying newspaper articles that have been written on proposed Interstate 3. Stop I-3, a coalition that opposes the interstate through the mountains, held a regional information meeting at White County High School Tuesday. (Staff photo/Carolyn Mathews)

Members of the multi-state Stop I-3 organization want to know why an interstate is being planned for Southern Appalachians.

Elizabeth Wells, Chairperson of the Georgia division of the anti-interstate group formed this spring as a reaction to a proposed interstate from Savannah to Knoxville, said Tuesday that U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson has communicated by letter with the group, telling them a $1.3 million feasibility study being financed by the federal government will determine if an interstate is a good idea. "However, he didn't answer the most important question," Wells said, "which is who wants this interstate and why."

Community speakers speaking on the subject of I-3 urged more than 200 people attending an informational rally at White County High School to fight efforts to build the interstate. Money for a feasibility study for Interstate 3 and another interstate that would run from Augusta to Mississippi was included in the recent highway bill signed by President George W. Bush. The feasibility study is expected to take 12-18 months.

Isakson, Wells said, did better than U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Congressman Charlie Norwood. Empty chairs sitting on the high school auditorium stage represented the absence of the two elected officials.

John Clarke, president of the North Carolina chapter of Stop I-3 has written a "white paper" on a suggested link between the transportation of nuclear waste and the plan for the highway. Clarke said the current federal energy bill encourages increased nuclear production and most of it is happening at Oak Ridge and at the Savannah River Nuclear Site near Augusta. "I just don't think it's any accident that highway is planned right now," he said. Clarke said a nuclear waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain probably won't happen and that nuclear waste may be disposed of at the Savannah River Nuclear Site instead. Clarke and Rabun County resident Lucy Ezzard Bartlett both cited twisting roads and foggy weather as potential causes for truck wrecks on an interstate placed through the mountains. Some of those trucks, they say, would carry hazardous wastes.