Wetlands advocates take lawmakers on tour

Preservation group opposes proposed SLT route

Four members of a legislative committee studying issues affecting Kansas Indian tribes toured the Haskell and Baker wetlands Tuesday.

“All we want is for this land to be preserved,” said Nick Luna, president of Wetlands Preservation Organization, a Haskell Indian Nations University-based organization dedicated to sparing the wetlands from the proposed South Lawrence Trafficway.

Luna asked the lawmakers to understand that American Indians consider the wetlands sacred and an environmental treasure.

The trafficway is pending approval of the route by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and financing from the Kansas Department of Transportation.

Completing the four-lane trafficway is expected to cost $110.2 million.

After reviewing the trafficway’s proposed 32nd Street alignment, Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, assured the wetlands organization he would ask state officials to explain their opposition to routes bypassing the wetlands.

“This whole thing appears to be for people from Johnson County who want to go to Topeka without having to slow down for Lawrence, and vice versa,” Sawyer said. “If that’s the case, they don’t care if they go a few extra miles to go around the wetlands. And we’re told there are some alternate routes that would cost about the same amount of money, so I have some questions for KDOT.”

Rep. Bill Mason, R-El Dorado, wasn’t as sympathetic. He said he could understand the WPO’s opposition to building a highway over land it considers sacred, but he doubted the wetlands were as unique as the preservation organization claimed.

Upon completion, the trafficway would connect U.S. Highway 59 at the southern edge of Lawrence and Kansas Highway 10 near Noria Road southeast of town.