DATE: Monday, March 31, 1997                TAG: 9703310047

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   81 lines

ROAD EXPANSION PLANS PLACE DISMAL SWAMP NEIGHBORS IN QUANDARY THEY MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN THEIR HOMES AND THE SURROUNDING WILDLIFE SANCTUARY.

Deloris Bolton owns the five horses on her 5-acre spread, but she welcomes the black bears, white-tail deer and the other critters that come with the territory.

Now that she has lived on West Road near the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge for about four years, she finds herself in the uncomfortable position of advocating destruction of wildlife, wetlands and history.

Traffic planners are looking for a place to put a new road, and the choice for Bolton and more than 120 of her usually eco-friendly neighbors is: Fight for the wild animals' habitat or fight for their own homes.

Traffic planners say Route 17, which runs along the eastern border of the Dismal Swamp Canal, needs to be wider because it can no longer handle the 7,800 to 8,200 vehicles a day that travel on it between North Carolina and Virginia. But since widening the existing roadway is considered environmentally damaging, officials are considering making West Road, now a two-lane country road, a four-lane divided highway.

What that means is Bolton and her neighbors will either have to move or face a roadway where their lawn used to be.

``That's why I moved here,'' said Bolton about the natural setting surrounding her house. ``According to the map they'd take my front yard for the highway, and that would ruin my quality of life just as if they'd taken my house. And animal habitat will be destroyed no matter where the highway goes.''

The Virginia Department of Transportation developed two basic routes for a 10- to 12.5-mile stretch of the road - either following the existing Route 17 or West Road just to the east - based on discussions with federal agencies that will supply the necessary funding and permits to build on wetlands.

Several federal environmental agencies are opposed to expanding the road because of threats to the wildlife preserve and surrounding ecosystem. Specifically, they're worried about protecting the recovering bear population and endangered Dismal Swamp shrew and sensitive wetlands as well as two historic houses. They say ecological damage would be far greater if the road is built next to the swamp rather than a couple of miles to the east.

But the agencies don't like the other choice much either.

VDOT's proposal says the West Road routes would flatten 32 or 33 houses and take parts of 80 more properties costing close to $40 million. Expanding Route 17 - with all the environmental concerns - where it is would take one or two houses and cost a little more than $22 million.

Letters from the U.S. Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department suggest VDOT consider other routes that are more palatable both environmentally and residentially.

Two suggestions were to build the new highway even farther east of West Road or keep both Route 17 and West Road intact and use one as the northbound lanes and the other as the southbound lanes.

Officials at VDOT - who were leaning toward the cheaper, easier Route 17 alternative - have not decided what their next move will be. The public comment period ends today and under usual circumstances one of the five proposed alternatives would be chosen. A design would be mapped out and taken back for public comment again.

But Alice Allen-Grimes, an environmental scientist with the Corps of Engineers, said tinkering with an alternative to lessen the environmental and human impacts is not unusual. In Chesapeake, changes were made to the Route 168 plans in the southern end at the end of the review process, she noted.

While VDOT makes the final recommendation and the Commonwealth Transportation Board makes the final decision, the Corps could prevent construction by withholding permits.

Allen-Grimes said she would like to see more information and a more specific cost analysis conducted by VDOT. Corps officials suggested that VDOT understated the money needed to widen Route 17 because it was unclear if considered were costs associated with building on mucky peat soil or constructing wildlife corridors to prevent animals from colliding with cars.

Deanna Golding, a West Road resident, said she hopes there are other alternatives considered. She pointed out that many of her neighbors have been there for a couple of generations, and they intend to fight to save their land. And Cecil Stewart, acting president of the Dismal Swamp Coalition, said he, too, cannot support knocking down houses on West Road in favor of the environment.

Given the two choices, though, federal official and the residents believe that no one will truly win no matter the outcome.

``I think there is a middle ground that can be analyzed,'' Allen-Grimes said. ``That's why we're asking questions. We want to minimize the impacts on the environment, but we want to avoid the homes. That's where we all agree.''

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