Nearly $18 million has been spent so far on preliminary designs, environmental studies, surveys and engineering for the new Interstate 74 bridge and proposed corridor improvements.

The initial estimate for replacing the four-lane bridge with a new six-lane structure and upgrades to the interstate corridor between 53rd Avenue, Davenport, and Avenue of the Cities, Moline, was $600 million. More recent estimates have pegged the cost at $900 million.

A public meeting on the project's "Final Environmental Impact Statement" will be held Tuesday, Feb. 10, from 4 to 7 p.m., at The Mark of the Quad Cities, Moline (aka i wireless center).

CH2MHill, headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, is the project manager for the bridge and corridor improvements. It and its subcontractors have received nearly $18 million to date for work related to the structure and corridor improvements.

Published January 28 in Quad City Times

By John B. Askew
Administrator, Region 7, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

On Jan. 6, the Quad-City Times published an editorial with the headline “EPA unjustly condemns Q-C.” We believe that some of the points expressed by the editorial board were inaccurate and misrepresent the work of the Environmental Protection Agency for the people who work and live in the Quad-City area.

First and foremost, we want people to understand that air quality as it relates to public health has to be our No. 1 concern. We have to ensure the best possible environment for the citizens of the Quad-City area and their children. It is our fundamental and statutory responsibility.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Tuesday (1/27) said a new 3-year average of fine particulate pollution doesn't support the non-attainment designation of Scott and Muscatine counties by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The DNR accelerated its 2008 data collection and analysis in order to submit the information before Feb. 20, the deadline set by the EPA for any change to its non-attainment designation order issued December 22.

In the December order, the EPA used 2005-2007 PM 2.5 (Particulate Matter less than 2.5 micrometers) data which showed pollution levels were exceeded at monitors near Blackhawk Foundry in Davenport and at Garfield School near Grain Processing Corp. in Muscatine.

First quarter earnings for Lee Enterprises, parent of the Quad City Times, fell nearly 69 percent despite the newspaper chain reducing its workforce by more than 10 percent during the quarter.

For the company's first fiscal quarter which ended Dec. 28, earnings per share were 15 cents, compared with 48 cents per share for the first quarter a year ago.

Revenues declined 13 percent from the same period last year to $243.5 million.

The lower revenues reflect a more than 15 percent decline in advertising revenues from a year ago. Classified ad revenue sank 26 percent, including a 43 percent fall off in employment revenues, a 26 percent decline in automotive revenue and a 30 percent decrease in real estate revenue.

Even the online ad revenue fell 14 percent from $13.5 million a year ago to $11.6 million for the quarter ending Dec. 28, 2008.

In yet another sign of the changing media times, newspapers have slipped to third among sources for national and international news, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

When asked "Where do you get most of your national and international news," 70 percent of the national survey respondents cited television, 40 percent the internet and 35 percent newspapers. It was the first time in the annual Pew research results the internet ranked higher than newspapers on the national and international news question.

Among 18 to 29 year olds, the shift to the Internet is even more pronounced. Asked what is their main source of news, 59 percent cited television, 59 percent the internet, 28 percent newspapers, 18 percent radio, and 4 percent magazines.

CLICK HERE for the top 20 point source emitters of PM 2.5 in Scott and Muscatine counties.

The Bi-State Regional Commission is in the process of broadening membership on its Air Quality Task Force in the wake of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's finding that most of Rock Island, Scott and Muscatine counties are in non-compliance with air standards for fine particulate matter.

The task force was formed 10 years ago as a subcommittee of Bi-State's QC Urban Transportation Policy Committee and had been primarily concerned with ground-level ozone pollution in the metropolitan QC area.

Just before the start of 2009, Lee Enterprises filed its long-delayed annual report originally due out in early December. Lee's fiscal 2008 year ended Sept. 28.

The report paints a bleak financial picture for the fourth largest newspaper chain in the country (owner of the Quad City Times) and raises questions about its long-term survival.

After Lee's stock meltdown from nearly $15 a share in January 2008 to 41 cents as of Friday (1/2/09), the firm wrote down the value of its goodwill by $909 million, and reported a net operating loss of $888 million for the year, or $19.83 per share.

The 10K report discusses the restructuring of the firm's $1.4 billion debt, and the company's accounting firm reported it is uncertain of the chain's ability to weather the financial storm from declining revenues and accelerating debt payments.

Balzac wrote: “Behind every great fortune lies a forgotten crime.” Combine that thought with Buffet’s" only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked” and you a great take of the current financial landscape.

Even before Monday's (12/22) designation of Scott, Rock Island and Muscatine counties as "non-attainment" for fine particulate pollution, Iowa and Illinois environmental agencies were hard at work analyzing 2008 air quality data to challenge the decision.

A loophole in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) non-attainment filing allows states to submit "complete, quality assured, certified 2008 data" prior to the effective date of the EPA rulemaking, Feb. 20, 2009, to obtain a reversal of the designation. Normally, states don't submit annual data until April, and certification of the data isn't required until July of the following year.

Air quality officials in Iowa have argued in earlier EPA submissions the 2005-2007 monitoring data used to determine non-attainment was skewed because of unusually hot weather, which affects formation of particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Monday (12/22) designated most of Scott, Rock Island and Muscatine counties as "non-attainment" areas for fine particulate pollution, rejecting last ditch efforts by local industry lobbyists to avoid the broad designation.

EPA narrowed its "non-attainment" area somewhat, but far less than sought by Quad City Development Group lobbyists and an ad hoc task force funded by several local governments and companies facing emission clean up requirements under the designation.

The EPA's initial designation included all of Scott, Muscatine and Rock Island Counties. In its final designations the non-attainment area includes most of those three counties, but excludes mainly outlying rural areas.