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It's a toll road. It's already funded, by some accounts. There aren't many people out there. There are other, more needy roadways, like U.S. 290. It's based on a vision of leapfrogging suburban growth that may no longer be sustainable in our post-Recession era.

And, oh yeah, the project - a 14-mile segment that would link Interstate 10 with 290 by slicing the environmentally sensitive Katy Prairie- was never really shovel-ready.

Harris County officials have apparently conceded the latter point. As the Chronicle's James Pinkerton reported last week, officials plan to ask the state to remove Segment E from the list, shifting the $181 million in federal stimulus funding approved for it to other worthy projects.

But the move has revealed problems with the project more profound than not being able to meet a few federal deadlines.

While the loss of stimulus funds won't derail this key section of the Grand Parkway, another obstacle very well could.

When Arthur Storey, executive director of Harris County's Public Infrastructure Department, recommended in a letter last week that commissioners give back the stimulus funding slated for Segment E, he cited delays in obtaining a federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Storey wrote, "In fact, because of conflicts over environmental impacts and mitigation, that permit may never be issued."

This is a bold statement. The permit isn't some extra string attached to federal money. It's a requirement for the project to move forward. No permit, no Segment E.

I asked Storey Monday if he was saying that such "conflict" specifically, critical reviews of and opposition to the permit application by both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department - could endanger the project.

"Sure, he said simply.

This is the reason, Storey said, he asked commissioners in his letter to re-evaluate other segments of the Grand Parkway project and review "overall funding priorities and constraints."

In the agencies' formal comments, submitted to the Corps, the state and federal wildlife agencies outlined serious concerns with the permit applications that went far beyond concern for, say, the blue-gray gnatcatcher.

The agencies maintained that the Harris County Toll Road Authority's proposals to mitigate the environmental impact of the Grand Parkway segment on the endangered ecosystem fell far short.

The agencies found that the county undervalued the Katy Prairie's crucial role in reducing flood damage. The proposed toll road could further degrade water quality in Lake Houston and Galveston Bay, in some cases, the federal agency stated, and lead to the demise of certain wildlife species.

Storey said he wasn't so much surprised as "disappointed", by the agencies' findings. Then he expressed a somewhat optimistic view, saying the findings could cause project delays ranging from "many months to years to never. It's my anticipation that reasonable minds will find a way to appropriately assess the impacts and provide mitigation in a much shorter time period than never."

Considering the controversy, the questions, the lawsuits surrounding the Grand Parkway project for the past two decades, one would think the county would have anticipated the feedback, and prepared for it.

But maybe this is the wake-up call environmentalists and other opponents of this project have been waiting for. Maybe it will cause county officials to step back, reassess priorities and realize the costs of this project are greater than any projected benefits.

Maybe not.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said he didn't agree with Storey's assessment that the agencies' critical comments of the project could kill it. But then, he said, he hasn't read the agencies' comments.

"Ultimately, he said of the parkway segment, "something has to be built, and I think it will be."

lisa.falkenberg@chron.com