Video

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Central Corridor Project included an Environmental Justice (EJ) component. The EJ section of the document supposedly studied the impact of the project on low-income Central Corridor residents and transit riders. The EJ study is credited to Nancy Ronhovde, B.S. (Degree Pending). I have asked repeatedly, at public meetings and in writing, what qualifies Ms. Ronhovde to perform an environmental justice analysis. The Met. Council and the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority have not responded. Nor has any other public official or public agency representative. A Google search of Ms. Ronhovde turns up no environmental justice related credits. A tribe in Texas paid Jack Abramoff millions of dollars in order to pass legislation favorable to their casino business. Abramoff pocketed the $millions without delivering promised services and got busted when a member of the tribe "blew the whistle." In exchange for an "Alternatives Analysis"/Draft EIS, Dick Wolsfeld, Highway Engineer and Central Corridor Project Consultant, and his firms, BRW, Inc. and DMJM Harris, Inc., received millions of public dollars. Did Dick Wolsfeld play a "Jack Abramoff" on the dupes in Minnesota when he collected a handsome fee for delivering a Nancy Ronhovde, B.S. (Degree Pending) credited study? At our State's premiere research institution, with departments of transportation studies, urban planning, engineering, geography, sociology, public affairs, history and law, and through which the Central Corridor runs, is there no one who would be more qualified than Nancy Ronhovde, B.S. (Degree Pending), to perform an Environmental Justice analysis?