On January 17, 2008 the Waller County Commissioners' Court went on record opposing the development of the Trans-Texas Corridor.  The Court expressed its concern that "if the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) were built it would negatively affect rural Texas, splitting farms and ranches, uprooting wildlife, having a negative impact on the local economy..."  The Court's concerns are shared by such diverse organizations as the Houston Audubon Society and the Texas Farm Bureau and also by the Katy Prairie Conservancy.

The Conservancy was established to preserve the wildlife habitat, wetlands, farms and ranches of the Katy Prairie for its recreational, conservation, agricultural, and historic benefits.  Many Conservancy supporters have been taking a close look at the TTC plans for some time.  The TTC promoters contend that they must construct the TTC in rural areas because it would be too costly to build a huge new project parallel to existing highways and freeways.  But many conservationists, hunters, farmers, and ranchers are concerned that plans for this super-sized roadway:

• Fail to adequately address the loss of agricultural land on the prairie.  Texas is losing agricultural lands faster than any state in the nation so we don't need to speed up that loss.  The proposed routes would pave over and destroy hundreds of thousands of prime agricultural lands; the TTC project requires approximately 1.2 million acres in rights of way lands. 
• Fail to adequately consider the project's impacts on Houston-area flooding and water quality.  When prairies and wetlands are preserved, they produce documented benefits for downstream residents.  Flooding is lessened and water quality is improved.  Paving over these prairies and wetlands will worsen matters in a region already facing severe flooding challenges, and the massive costs related to those challenges.  The Houston Audubon Society recommends that "More time is needed to assess immediate and cumulative impacts of this entire project on Texas and the entire region" and we agree.
  
• Fail to adequately address the impacts on threatened and endangered species that the Conservancy helps protect on the Katy Prairie, such as the Bald Eagle and Texas Prairie Dawn.

The Katy Prairie Conservancy recognizes that we must balance the needs of a growing population, including transportation infrastructure, with conservation.  But the TTC will plough under thousands of acres of irreplaceable natural habitat and agricultural acreage with no adequate attempt to preserve any part of the ecosystems and land uses that the TTC will degrade and displace.  The Katy Prairie Conservancy recently passed a resolution adopting the No Action Alternative or No Build Alternative as the best strategy to preserve what we value and cherish about the Katy Prairie and our community. 

For more information on the environmental issues associated with plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor, the internet offers web sites including: www.wallercountycitizens.org, www.corridorwatch.org, www.ctchouston.org, www.houstonaudubon.org, and www.tfb.org.  The site for the Texas Department of Transportation, which is proposing to build the TTC,  is www.keeptexasmoving.org.  To which we add, based on what we've learned so far about the Trans-Texas Corridor: NOT SO FAST!