The key word is "wetlands"--the project would entail building on an environmentally sensitive tract. Environmentalists charge that the project would roll back the remarkable progress that has been made in cleaning up the Meadowlands region. It's the old jobs-vs.-environmental impact standoff, and all the emotion involved with this one came out at the first of two public hearings conducted earlier this week by the US Army Corps of Engineers. A key point is that Mills has agreed to enhance an adjacent 592-acre wetlands tract in exchange for paving over the proposed development site.
Focus of this and a subsequent hearing scheduled for September 25th is a 2,700-page draft environmental impact study. Point and counterpoint throughout the evening alternately drew cheers and jeers from the estimated 1,000 people in attendance.
The business community and labor unions like the estimated 7,000 construction and 12,600 permanent jobs the project could create, not to mention the $14 billion in combined wages.
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