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Complaint states project violates seven federal laws
Five environmental organizations Thursday filed legal challenges in opposition to the Army Corps of Engineers plan to dredge the Delaware River
The organizations filed their own independent legal challenge in U.S. District Court in New Jersey and filed to intervene in the legal action brought against the deepening project by the state of Delaware.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, the National Wildlife Federation, New Jersey Environmental Federation, Clean Water Action, Delaware Nature Society claim the Army Corps' plan to move forward with the dredging as early as next month without an up-to-date environmental impact statement and without permits and approvals from both New Jersey, Delaware and other federal agencies is a violation of seven federal laws as well as Delaware law.
"When the government is willing to break the law in a way that hurts our communities, citizens must rise up and defend the law, (and) defend the river that sustains us all,'' said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper. "That is what we are doing today - defending our right to clean water, clean air, fish we can catch and feed our children, wetlands and floodplains that protect us from pollution and floods"
The legal complaint filed in federal court is over 140 pages long and asserts that the Army Corps plans violate the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act and Delaware law.
The organizations are seeking a court finding that the Army Corps is in violation of these state and federal laws and a court order prohibiting the project from moving forward until all legal permits, approvals and documents have been finalized.
The Delaware deepening project is a 1992 proposal by the Corps of Engineers, in partnership with the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, to dredge the Delaware River's main navigation channel from 40 to 45 feet, for 102 miles from off Cape May to north of Camden.
Elizabeth Koniers Brown, attorney for the environmentalists, said, "The environmental organizations filed their own legal challenge to ensure the broad array of legal violations were addressed in any final court ruling. While the organizations heartily support the actions by the States of New Jersey and Delaware, neither state's action fully captured Plaintiffs' positions on the legal violations at issue and the impact to the watershed and its inhabitants. "
"We are filing suit today to put the brakes on this rogue Army Corps deepening project which threatens South Jersey and Philadelphia's major drinking water source - the Delaware River, as well as the fish and oyster populations that provide recreational enjoyment and commercial employment in the region." said Jane Nogaki with the New Jersey Environmental Federation.
"It is past time for the Corps of Engineers to end its history of environmentally destructive projects that fail to make economic sense," said Jim Murphy, a counsel for the National Wildlife Federation. "These actions are about ensuring the Corps takes the most basic steps to protect the wetlands, floodplains and other natural systems we will need to survive climate change and protect our communities."
"This is not about the environment versus the economy, this is about protecting both. We don't understand why the Army Corps is unwilling to submit a Delaware permit application which provides legally binding assurance that Delaware's environmental assets will not be harmed by their project" said Richard Fleming, Delaware Nature Society. "Claims for jobs and port growth Governor Rendell espouses are unsubstantiated by independent analysts. In fact the Government Accountability Office has twice found that economic claims for the project are untrue."
"Millions of people in the tri state region depend on the Delaware River and nearby aquifers for their drinking water. We should not allow any project to move forward that could contaminate those supplies and endanger the health of the region's residents" warned Bob Wendelgass with Clean Water Action.
The last environmental impact statement for the project was completed in 1997. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection revoked its Coastal Zone Consistency Determination for the project in 2003 in response to new environmental and economic concerns and changed conditions. This year, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control denied the project needed state permits. Also this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the Army Corps compliance with the Clean Air Act was needed before the project could move forward and disagreed that the agency had fulfilled this obligation.
— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Considerable effort must take place to make sure we continue to research, monitor and re-develop our nation's drinking water and sewer waste management systems to ensure safe practices within our communities.
At the same time, I take issue with some of the grandstanding language and accusations being leveled at the ACOE by concerned environmental groups.
For instance:
"When the government is willing to break the law in a way that hurts our communities, citizens must rise up and defend the law, (and) defend the river that sustains us all,'' said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper. "That is what we are doing today - defending our right to clean water, clean air, fish we can catch and feed our children, wetlands and floodplains that protect us from pollution and floods"
Are we talking about the same river here? Has Ms. van Rossum ever seen the Delaware River in the Philadelphia/Camden area? Would she actually feed children fish caught from this river? Let us not exaggerate the "pristine" beauty of our natural resources.
Furthermore, since we all depend so much on this river for our drinking water and recreational oyster activities, maybe there should be more citizen outrage that the city of Philadelphia, like many major citites in this nation, has an outdated combined sewer and stormwater system that routinely dumps our sewage into the river during storm events.
Obviously there is much to do to restore the Delaware River to the pristine and beautiful state it deserves (and we deserve). Therefore, perhaps these concerned environmental groups should focus on constructive dialogue to advance those sorts of clean-up efforts, rather than making poor arguments to block economic initiatives to preserve a filthy status quo. Maybe then we can add something to the conversation instead of just muddying the waters.