PRESS RELEASE
12/20/01

The State of Kentucky has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit involving the proposed Kentucky TriModal Transpark in Warren County. The lawsuit, filed last month by the Cumberland Chapter of the Sierra Club, seeks to force Governor Paul Patton to form the Interagency Farmland Advisory Committee to review the transpark. At the same time, the governor has abolished the Committee by executive order and announced a plan to introduce new legislation involving farmland development. If upheld in court, the governor's actions could impact the way many proposed and future commercial developments in rural areas are approved.

A hearing is scheduled in Franklin Circuit Court, 218 St. Clair Street, Frankfort, Kentucky, on Wednesday, January 2 at 9:00 am.

The original law was enacted in 1984 to require the governor to form a committee to review developments involving the conversion of more than 50 acres of farmland to industrial use. For reasons that are not clear, no governor has enforced the law since 1988.

Last month, the Cumberland Chapter of the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in an effort to force Patton to abide by the law, and to appoint the Committee to review the Kentucky TriModal Transpark. The transpark is to be a 4,000-acre industrial park and airport seven miles southwest of Mammoth Cave National Park. The Sierra Club hopes that by invoking the Interagency Farmland Advisory law, the process by which farmland is to be converted for the transpark will receive an objective review by state officials.

The Governor's motion to dismiss the lawsuit calls the abolishment of the Committee a "temporary reorganization subject to review and approval of the General Assembly in its next regular session that begins January 8, 2002." The motion says that new legislation will be proposed to address land use planning, including a process for the consideration of the use of farmland in state projects. The motion goes on to say that if the General Assembly does not enact legislation for a new statewide planning process, the existing Advisory Committee would be used.

Sierra Club attorney Frank Graddy said that he believes the existing 1984 law must be applied in the case of the Kentucky TriModal Transpark.

Mammoth Cave author and leading transpark opponent Roger Brucker expressed disappointment in the governor's actions.

"It is deplorable that the ITA and now the governor have attempted to thwart laws and procedures designed to protect the public interest in their zeal to make the transpark a done deal," he said. "I am sure the ITA will blame opponents for the delays, but the ITA's haste, sloppiness, reliance on 'old boy' politics, and failure to do things right is the root cause."

Brucker is a co-founder of Karst Environmental Education and Protection (KEEP), a volunteer coalition of scientists, environmentalists, landowners and other concerned citizens who oppose the transpark.

Although the Sierra Club's lawsuit does not specifically address environmental concerns, many experts are worried that chemical and fuel spills at the transpark would contaminate underground streams that flow into Mammoth Cave to the north, and to the Barren River to the south. Such spills could wildlife, including several threatened and endangered species, including bats, blind shrimp, cave crayfish and certain mussels.