By JENNIFER WHITSON

Evansvill Courier & Press Indianapolis bureau

INDIANAPOLIS - Proponents of an Interstate 69 route that would connect Indianapolis and Evansville via Terre Haute began their fight Thursday against a state study released two weeks ago that listed their route as "nonpreferred."

"INDOT readily admitted that the common sense U.S. 41/I-70 route for I-69 was indeed the least expensive and least damaging of all the routes," said Andrew Knott, air and energy policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council.

The state's draft environmental impact statement analyzed 12 potential I-69 routes and declared five "preferred."

Thursday's news conference promises to be only the beginning of a tough fight to sway public opinion about specific routes. Proponents of an I-70/U.S. 41 said they have retained experts to pore over the thousand-page plus document and that they will be coming out with more detailed critiques of the draft environmental impact statement in the next few weeks.

The groups said they helped get an environmental impact statement thrown out in the past, and they will try to do it again. "The 1996 draft environmental impact statement - Hoosiers didn't stand for that and it got thrown out," Knott said. "This new draft (environmental impact statement) likewise is dead on arrival."

One of the coalition's complaints about the environmental impact statement was that the analysis did not include the benefits, such as travel time saved, of a planned, separate upgrade to I-70. Rather, the draft environmental impact statement gave the Terre Haute route points for upgrades to U.S. 41.

But Indiana Department of Transportation Commissioner J. Bryan Nicol said upgrades already in the works were not include in the analysis of any of the routes.

"You can't have your cake and eat it too," he said, adding that if they include the benefits of the separate I-70 upgrade in the environmental impact statement, then they would also have to include the upgrade's $400 million price in the Terre Haute route's score.

Thomas Tokarski of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads also called the study "contrived" because of the way it eliminated some poor environmental performers.

"INDOT makes a big point of saying they took some routes out because they are environmentally sensitive," Tokarski said. "But we feel that some of those routes were put in so that INDOT could look good taking them out. Those were never realistic routes. They knew that they would never pass environmental criteria."

But Nicol said the accusation is "simply untrue."

"We have done a fair and accurate job studying this," he said, adding that two top performing routes, considering travel time and transportation needs, were bumped due to their environmental impact.

And while parties that favor one route over another vie for influence, Knott said where Gov. Frank O'Bannon stands will be pivotal.

"The real question is: Is the governor's mind made up?" Knott said. "He has said that he is in favor a new-terrain route during the last gubernatorial campaign. The question is: Will he change his mind?"

But word from O'Bannon's office is that chances of the governor changing his mind are not high.

"(O'Bannon) is going to support what the study results are," said spokesman Andrew Stoner. "But throughout his political career he has said that he favors a more direct route for the interstate between Indianapolis and Evansville."

And while the blows against the I-70/U.S. 41 route continue to mount, proponents say they will keep up the fight.

"We've been working on this project for 12 years," said Sandra Tokarski of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads. "If INDOT chooses any of the new-terrain routes, the opposition is not going to go away.

"If the governor and the people in Evansville - it isn't really the people in Evansville - the highway boosters in Evansville want an interstate highway, then they need to use U.S. 41/I-70 because we are here, we are on the ground and we are not going away," she added.

John Moore, an attorney with the Environmental Law & Policy Center, said a legal battle may loom if their route isn't chosen.

"We'll only pursue a legal remedy if INDOT does the wrong thing," Moore said. "If the final (environmental impact statement) looks like the draft (environmental impact statement), in my opinion that's unlawful. "Whether or not a lawsuit is filed is up to all the folks here in this room," Moore said. "But I can tell you, we won't file a lawsuit if they pick U.S. 41/I-70."

© 2001 The E.W. Scripps Co.