- Six environmental groups are suing the federal government over a Washington County highway plan.
- They claim the project violates laws and threatens the Mojave desert tortoise habitat.
- Local officials argue the highway is essential for growth and complies with legal standards.
ST. GEORGE — Six environmental and conservation groups, including Conserve Southwest Utah and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, are challenging the federal government's recent decision to move forward with a road project through a section of a conservation area in southwest Utah.
The group filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday, asserting that the project would violate multiple federal laws and harm important habitat for the threatened Mojave desert tortoise within the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in Washington County.
Representatives for the six groups said they filed it after learning "ground-disturbing activities" could begin soon, following the federal government's decision last month to reapprove the project.
"The Northern Corridor Highway not only violates bedrock environmental laws but undermines the integrity of protected public lands nationwide. We won't let that happen," said Hannah Goldblatt, staff attorney at Advocates for the West and the group's counsel, in a statement.
The lawsuit marks the latest wrinkle in the project, which has become a political football in recent years. UDOT requested a right-of-way in 2018 to build a four-lane, 4.5-mile connection between Washington Parkway and Red Hills Parkway in Washington County, which would cut through a small section of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area.
Federal officials awarded UDOT a permit for the project during the final week of President Donald Trump's first term in 2021, prompting a lawsuit that many of the same groups filed later that year.
The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — under the Biden administration — eventually reversed their decision in 2024, before the agencies — back under the Trump administration again — revisited their original approval in January. State and local officials said a few dozen desert tortoises would be relocated because of the project, but the project added over 6,800 acres of land for future conservation.
Goldblatt points out that the latest approval is the eighth time the project has been considered, though, with previous efforts stalling over concerns related to wildlife impact, legal compliance and other issues. These include the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, which the group argues that the plan violates.
"To continue to push for a widely rejected and illegal highway and expect a different result is a waste of everyone's resources," she said. "And once again, federal agencies are complicit in the effort by approving the paving of this congressionally protected, sensitive, scenic landscape."
However, local leaders, who celebrated the federal government's recent reversal, say they believe the agencies did nothing wrong.
In a statement, Washington County Attorney Jerry Jaeger said the county disagrees with the lawsuit's allegations, adding that it believes the federal government agencies "have complied with all laws and regulations to manage public lands consistent with the law and the public interest."
"We are disappointed to hear that special interest groups have — yet again — filed a lawsuit in opposition to the UDOT Northern Corridor route, wasting taxpayer dollars and resulting in increasing congestion and pollution and the loss of thousands of acres of prime habitat to development," added St. George Mayor Jimmie Hughes. "This lawsuit filed by special interest groups is another attempt to raise funds for these groups rather than seeking solutions that benefit the residents of Washington County, while protecting thousands of additional acres of tortoise habitat."
It's unclear how long the new lawsuit will take to play out in court.
Local officials said last month that the project is an important transportation piece for the fast-growing region and that they'd like to begin construction as soon as possible.
