|
TRENTON
-- Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
today that the state has followed through
on Governor Corzine’s direction to file
a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
seeking to block the planned dredging and
deepening of the Delaware River shipping channel
on grounds the project violates environmental
laws.
Filed
in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the
lawsuit seeks to enjoin the Corps of Engineers
from moving ahead with the deepening project
until it conducts comprehensive sampling and
analysis of sediment to be dredged from the
Delaware River bottom.
Governor
Corzine announced last week that the suit
would be filed if the Army Corps did not suspend
its plan to issue a “Notice to Proceed.”
“The
Army Corp has decided to go ahead with its
completely irresponsible plan to circumvent
New Jersey’s strong environmental protection
processes and plow blindly ahead with dredging,”
Governor Corzine said. “I cannot allow
the people of South Jersey to have these dredge
spoils dumped on them.”
“Too
many corners have been cut for a project of
this magnitude to go forward,” said
Attorney General Milgram. “Through today’s
action, we intend to ensure that the Army
Corps of Engineers is held accountable, that
it complies with all applicable environmental
laws, and that New Jersey’s vital natural
resources are protected.”
“For
more than a year the Department has repeatedly
requested that the Army Corps of Engineers
update the environmental analyses of the proposed
deepening project and coordinate with the
state of New Jersey to ensure that all environmental
impacts of the project are adequately addressed,”
said Department of Environmental Protection
(DEP) Acting Commissioner Mark N. Mauriello.
“Unfortunately, the ACOE has ignored
these requests and important environmental
concerns, leaving us with no other recourse
but to file this action.”
In addition to noting that insufficient sampling
and analysis of sediment has taken place,
the lawsuit charges failure by the Army Corps
of Engineers to perform and update required
environmental studies – environmental
impact studies on the project date to the
1990s -- and failure to coordinate the deepening
project with New Jersey’s own coastal
management programs as required by the federal
Coastal Zone Management Act.
The
state’s complaint charges failure by
the Corps of Engineers to obtain a water quality
certificate from the DEP as required by the
Clean Water Act.
The
lawsuit also charges the Corps of Engineers
with violating the federal Clean Air Act by
proceeding with the dredging and deepening
project before determining that it will conform
to New Jersey’s federally-required State
Implementation Plan for attaining national
ambient air quality standards.
The
deepening project will span 102 miles of the
main channel of the Delaware River from Philadelphia
to the Delaware Bay, and will encompass areas
listed by the National Marine Fisheries Service
as essential fish habitat.
Deputy Attorneys General Rachel Horowitz,
Eileen Kelly, Kristen Heinzerling and Lauren
Trasferini, assigned to the Division of Law’s
Environmental Permitting and Counseling section,
handled the Army Corps of Engineers lawsuit
on behalf of the state.
### |
