Supporters of Tollway Vow More Steps to Shield Wildlife : Ecology: With two vital EIR hearings slated this month, the road agency, the EPA and local environmentalists continue to bolster their positions.

With a key series of environmental hearings set to begin next week, promoters of the San Joaquin Hills tollway pledged Monday to take additional steps to ease the highway’s effect on wildlife, assuage drainage concerns and ensure that construction does not infringe on surrounding communities.

But the tollway agency refused to bow to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency demand for a more comprehensive analysis of the road’s regionwide effects on air quality and growth. Although the EPA argues that the 17.5-mile highway could spur development and cause additional air pollution, tollway boosters dispute those claims.

Opponents were barely mollified by a 3-inch-thick document released Monday, detailing the Transportation Corridor Agency’s responses to more than 2,500 questions and criticisms filed in recent months by regulatory agencies and the general public.

“It’s business as usual,” said Norm Grossman, a leader of Laguna Greenbelt Inc., which opposes the tollway. “It sounds like they’re still dodging the issues. I haven’t read the specifics, but to say this road isn’t growth-inducing is to ignore all the evidence to the contrary.”

Hearings on the road’s environmental impact report are slated Feb. 14 and 28, with the tollway agency expected to render a decision on the document March 14. The $667-million project then moves on to the Federal Highway Administration for review.

Several foes of the tollway have promised to sue if it is approved by the Transportation Corridor Agency next month. But such a lawsuit “can be handled relatively quickly,” possibly delaying the project only six months to a year, said Rob Thornton, legal counsel for the agency.

In response to criticism that the highway would severely damage the environment, TCA officials said that they would add two extra “wildlife crossings” for deer and other migratory animals and expand efforts to re-create natural wetland areas and other habitat by planting oak and coastal sage scrub in appropriate spots.

It also would erect fences around environmentally sensitive areas during construction, provide wildlife watering holes and reestablish roosting sites for large birds.

In addition, agency officials say, they will consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to resolve the controversy over the least Bell’s vireo, a tiny songbird on the federal endangered species list. Federal officials say a single male vireo has been spotted near the tollway route, but the road’s boosters contend the sighting may have been an anomaly.

Battered by complaints from Laguna Canyon residents concerned about potential flooding that could be caused by the highway, tollway agency officials repeated their pledge to construct special basins that will collect runoff during heavy rains, allowing it to flow out at a slow-enough rate to avoid problems.

The agency also promised to work with the concerned cities to make sure construction activity does not pose problems for traffic or residents.

But the issues of growth and air pollution promise to be among the most intensely debated in the coming weeks as plans for the road meander through the environmental review process.

Tollway officials contend that the highway will ease air pollution by speeding up traffic that normally would sit idling on crowded Interstate 5 and other South County roads. Moreover, they argue that growth along the route has already been cemented by “developer agreements” drawn up between builders and Orange County officials, meaning that houses and condominiums will be built regardless of the highway’s fate.

Steve Letterly, the tollway agency’s environmental manager, said the EPA has a “complete misunderstanding” of the process being used by the tollway agency to determine how much pollution would be emitted by cars using the highway, which stretches from Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano to the Corona del Mar Freeway in Newport Beach.

Officials at the EPA could not be reached for comment Monday. In letters and discussions with tollway boosters, the federal agency has maintained that the highway would encourage motorists to make more trips, adding to the load of air pollution in Southern California, already the smoggiest place in the nation.

In addition, EPA officials argue that the tollway agency has failed to consider a wide range of alternatives to building the road, among them rail and efforts to reduce the density of housing planned along the route.

As the environmental hearing nears, activists in several cities are gearing up to battle the project.

In San Juan Capistrano, corridor foes are expected tonight to present the City Council with a petition signed by an estimated 2,500 residents opposed to the tollway. The Laguna Niguel City Council, meanwhile, will take a look at a study pinpointing where new commercial development might be allowed if more than a dozen existing businesses are uprooted to make way for the tollway.