Environmental group expands megaloads suit

Associated Press | Friday, June 17, 2011 12:00 am

BOISE – An environmental group suing over plans to haul oversized truckloads of oil refinery equipment along a northern Idaho highway and federally protected river corridor have expanded their complaint to include the Federal Highway Administration.

In a statement Thursday, Idaho Rivers United said the complaint had been amended to list the highway agency as an additional defendant.

The group filed its original complaint in March against the U.S. Forest Service, alleging the agency neglected its duty and federal laws by allowing Idaho officials to give ExxonMobil Corp. permits to haul the giant loads along U.S. Highway 12.

A significant portion of the highway passes along the Lochsa and Clearwater rivers, which were among the nation’s first to be protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act approved by Congress in 1968.

Associated Press