Groups sue over MoPac project
Friday, March 1, 2019 by Elizabeth Pagano
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Save Our Springs Alliance are suing the Texas Department of Transportation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, claiming the MoPac Intersections Project threatens the Austin blind salamander and the Barton Springs salamander, both endangered species. According to a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity, “The conservation groups recently learned that the MoPac Intersections Project has exposed at least 21 underground caves, sink holes and other karst features that provide habitat for the endangered salamanders. There is a high risk that construction will pollute the two species’ habitat by introducing silt and pollutants to the subsurface. The project is being built across the environmentally sensitive Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone in southwest Austin.” The notice of the intent to sue, filed yesterday, is embedded below. Construction on the project started in January 2018.
Join Your Friends and Neighbors
We're a nonprofit news organization, and we put our service to you above all else. That will never change. But public-service journalism requires community support from readers like you. Will you join your friends and neighbors to support our work and mission?
