The dispute revolves around ConnDOT's application for wetlands filling permits and a water quality certification for the project, which adds lanes to 2.1 miles of the road where it connects to the end of I-691. Water quality concerns are significant because the segment proposed for widening runs directly through the Mount Higby Reservoir preserve and is located in two public watersheds of the Mattabasset Regional Drainage Basin.

Last month, upon appeal, DEP Commissioner Arthur Roque overturned a December 1999 DEP decision in favor of the required permits. Agreeing with opponents, the Commissioner ruled that ConnDOT had failed to provide more than "bald assertions" that the widening was needed to improve safety or traffic flow and would have no significant impact on the watershed and reservoir system. He ordered the agency to improve its evidence within 60 days or face permit denial.

Kathy Kokoszka, chairwoman of Citizens for a Sensible 66, told the Campaign that "glaring holes" in the ConnDOT application could not possibly be filled in the time allotted, but remains concerned. Experience in other parts of the state shows ConnDOT to be undaunted by environmental rulings. Last November, ConnDOT submitted its third application to construct a new expressway in the Rt. 6 corridor through the Hop River basin, even though the two previous, similar alignments were denied by the Army Corps of Engineers and strongly opposed by the US EPA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency (MTR #'s244, 258).