It is the public’s right under federal and state laws to participate in the environmental review process for large or small construction or development projects that require permits. These laws allow citizens to comment on the project and help the government issuing the permits to identify and mitigate any environmental, social, and economic impacts the proposed project may impose on the environment or health of local communities.

This environmental right is in jeopardy – and we need your help to protect it!

Click here to ask Governor Paterson to take appropriate measures to ensure full public participation in the environmental review process for the Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 Corridor proposal by directing the New York State Department of Transportation to operate under the full tenets of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and New York's State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). The current proposal, as established by the New York State Department of Transportation, is a three-tiered approach that will make final decisions on what project will be chosen, without knowing its social, economic, and environmental impacts on Hudson Valley communities. Once the decision is made, there will be no time allowed to appeal the agency's decision - should mitigation of such impacts be unattainable - as the statute of limitations has been reduced from six years to 180 days.

New Yorkers deserve the right to understand fully the impacts of such a large infrastructure project and to have their concerns addressed before a decision is made.




Is It Really Two Tiers?

At first glance, the Scoping Document indicates that a tiered analysis will be conducted in two phases.[i] A more careful review of the Scoping Document, however, reveals, that in an additional “third tier” will have to be performed to address station locations, vehicle types, storage facilities, site specific impacts and mitigation measures, the very issues which will most directly affect the communities and physical environment along the Project Corridor.[ii] The Scoping Document obfuscates this key issue by labeling the hidden, third tier as a “subsequent NEPA action”.

Moreover, this Tier 3 analysis is to be performed after the initial Environmental Impact Statement and Records of Decision have been issued for the Tier 1 and 2 decisions. Because this Project has been redesigned to comply with the relatively new federal statute, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible Transportation Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFTEA-LU), we are very concerned that the public-at-large and interested entities will be precluded from having the right to appeal a completed, final decision which encompasses all three tiers of the analysis. Under SAFETEA-LU’s shortened 180 day Statute of Limitations period, the time period for appealing the Tier 1 and Tier 2 decisions will expire before the actual Tier 3 analysis of direct impacts to communities and appropriate mitigation measures is completed or perhaps begun.