BACKGROUND
During World War II all the land on the southern edge of the Smokys in Swain County was taken by TVA(essentially the federal government) to build Lake Fontana, to provide electricity to smelt aluminum for the war effort. The only east-west road (NC288) was submerged by the new lake. The people of Swain County were promised that the government would build a new road, IF Congress appropriated the money. In the intervening years a road (NC28) was built on the south side of the lake, but Swain County has continued to call for the promised road. Also it became apparent that not only would such a road be incredibly expensive, but that it would cause tremendous environmental damage to the Park, this part of which is really a wilderness and is managed as such. The road would expose an iron pyrite-containing stratum (the Anakeesta formation) that generates sulfuric acid when exposed to air and rain, causing damage to the lake and its feeder streams and their trout populations.
Since the Park Service has acknowledged an ethical, if not a legal obligation to fulfill the old promise, and since environmental laws passed in the '60's and '70's would bar a road, it has been suggested that a payment be made to Swain County in compensation for the lost road. Such efforts have always failed in the past because a dedicated core of citizens in Swain County have insisted on the road. (Contrary to the claims of the pro-road faction, there has never been any promise or obligation to provide access to cemeteries that remained in the Park. The Park Service currently provides free ferry service to allow access many times during the year, at a cost exceeding $20,000.)RECENT HAPPENINGS
There the matter rested until 2001 when it was learned that Congressman Charles Taylor had slipped a rider onto an appropriations bill which authorized $16 million to be spent on planning for the north shore road, the total cost of which would be $560 million or more. It is possible that Taylor intends to push this road in spite of all environmental laws, as he managed to do with his infamous "Salvage Timber Rider" a few years ago. As chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, Taylor has considerable power to keep this issue boiling. With his loss to Heath Shuler in 2006 we have an opponent to the proposed road, and would hope for the idea to be killed once and for all in the 110th Congress in 2007 and 8.
Happily, a new group (CEFSC) Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County) has arisen in Swain County which sees that the road would not really be such a major benefit, but that the money, which now with interest and inflation, approaches $52 million, would be of enormous immediate benefit to the County. Indeed, the interest on such a sum approaches one-third of the County's annual budget.
Sierra Club favors payment to Swain County "in lieu of performance" to satisfy the old promise. The Swain County Commissioners, by a 4 to 1 vote in 2003, called for the cash settlement.
The Park Service began the process of preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), with public meetings beginning in 2003, and in February 2006, published a Draft EIS for public comment. See a summary of the DEIS and how you can respond at DEIS.Sidenote:
In October, 2002, the Park Superintendent was transferred to Yosemite National Park, and David Mihalic, the Yosemite Superintendent, was transferred to the Smokies. However when Mihalic learned from the Deputy Director of the Park Service that he was being sent here to push through the Ravensford land swap and the North Shore Road, he refused the transfer and took retirement from the Park Service after 30 some years. He commented that he had spent his whole career protecting the Parks, ( including opposing the Ravensford exchange and the North Shore Road when he worked in the Smokys years ago) and was not about to change that now. The Bush administration is playing hardball with its employees to get what it wants, just as with National Forests.