Less than 48 hours after the Obama Administration announced they will be accelerating review of the Crenshaw-LAX final environmental document, our attorney sent our Notice of Intent to Sue the MTA and FTA for violating environmental laws.

To be clear, because federal money is included in the budget for the Crenshaw-LAX Line both the MTA and the Federal Transit Administration must certify that the environmental study complies with the applicable state (for MTA) and federal (for FTA) laws. The environmental study is officially a joint document: Final Environmental Impact Statement (federal)/Final Environmental Impact Report (state). Contrary to the claims of MTA and MTA board members, the FTA has NOT certified the project. The agency is currently reviewing the document and considering the comments submitted through October 11th. We submitted our Notice of Intent to Sue directly to the United States Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff, the FTA Director of the Office of Civil Rights and FTA Regional Administrator with a very simple message: “There will be a judicial review of your actions with[] respect to this project.”

It is a legal requirement to send the letter, which is below, to the party that is being sued prior to the filing of a lawsuit based on violations of environmental laws: