In Edison, New Jersey today, US Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Jeanne Fox announced her agency's continued objection to the NJ Turnpike Authority's proposal to build a new toll highway - Route 92 - across southern Middlesex County. Fox cited heavy wetlands impacts and the availability of cheaper, less destructive solutions to traffic problems.

"New Jersey has lost over half of its wetlands, and we have to balance the need for development and traffic improvements with preserving the remaining wetlands. It is my intention to begin an intensive effort over the next thirty days with the State of New Jersey to come up with an alternative on which we can all agree that will address these concerns," said Fox in a news release.

Through a section of the Clean Water Act, the EPA has ceded final authority on freshwater wetlands permits to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. But since Route 92 involves a "major discharge" of land fill, the EPA has authority to comment on the permit application and its opinion will surely bear on NJ DEP's perspective. In the next thirty days, the EPA, DEP, and Turnpike Authority will be in close consultation on whether or how to follow to EPA's conclusions. NJ Governor Christine Whitman has vigorously backed the project to date.

EPA called its proposal a "modified no-build alternative" that would spare wetlands, shave over $200 million from the project cost, and still address local traffic problems. The EPA alternative prescribes an interchange between Route 32 and Route 130, intersection improvements, and better synchronized traffic signals. As some of these measures would have no Turnpike Authority connection, it is unclear who would manage or finance them.

Tri-State Transportation Campaign hails the EPA decision as a economical compromise that will mitigate congestion without inducing significant new traffic. Original studies showed that Route 92 would attract almost 12,000 new vehicles per day to the area. The Campaign has consistently opposed Route 92 as for its certain potential to promote sprawl and traffic growth.