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The Environmental Defense Fund has dropped its lawsuit to block the Intercounty Connector in exchange for $2 million worth of pollution-reduction equipment for school buses and a three-year analysis of air quality along a highway similar to the controversial road.
The agreement means the group will not challenge the $2.4 billion road, which is under construction to connect interstates 270 and 95 between Gaithersburg and Laurel, as it is currently planned.
"We decided this settlement agreement offers us the best possible outcome at this point," said Michael Replogle, transportation director for the group.
"Certainly, we did not get everything we wanted, but the settlement provides an important win for the environment, given where we are in the legal process."
Neil J. Pedersen, the state highway administrator, said that without a settlement, the state would have continued to incur legal expenses.
About $1 million will be spent to retrofit diesel school buses in Montgomery County, where some schools are close to the path of the road, and to reduce school bus idling, which increases pollution.
Idling is an issue for truckers and bus drivers who sometimes leave vehicles running to avoid starter problems or to keep warm in cold weather, said John Matthews, transportation director for Montgomery County Public Schools.
MCPS has reduced idling and has modified 251 of 1,272 buses in its fleet as part of a campaign to save fuel and cut emissions, Matthews said.
Under the settlement, as much as $1 million will pay for the installation of air-quality monitors at the intersection of I-95 and Route 214, Central Avenue, in Largo. That junction was selected for its similarities to the planned intersection of the ICC and I-95.
In November 2007, U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. ruled against the plaintiffs — the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club and the Audubon Naturalist Society — stating that he found "no legal or equitable basis" to stop the road from being built.
In January, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club appealed the decision, but in September the Sierra Club withdrew from the appeal.