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TRENTON -- The State of New
Jersey today moved to intervene in U.S. District
Court in Delaware in support of Delaware’s
suit to prevent the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
from proceeding to dredge and deepen a 102-mile
Delaware Bay and River navigation channel
from Cape May to Philadelphia.
Delaware’s suit closely
mirrors the lawsuit New Jersey filed on its
own in U.S. District Court in Trenton on Monday
to block the planned dredging on grounds the
project violates environmental laws. Intervening
in Delaware to support that state’s
suit against the Army Corps of Engineers further
protects New Jersey’s interests in the
case.
New Jersey’s support
of Delaware’s request for an injunction
to halt the project declares that it is in
the Garden State’s interest to intervene
in Delaware to protect its own natural resources,
surface and ground waters, and air quality.
“The health of New Jersey’s residents
will be directly affected by the disposition
of Delaware’s claims for relief,”
the request to intervene states. “While
Delaware shares with New Jersey an interest
in ensuring that the Army Corps meets pertinent
environmental standards, Delaware cannot be
expected to protect New Jersey’s interest
to the fullest extent.”
New Jersey argues that the
Army Corps of Engineers has never comprehensively
sampled the millions of cubic yards of sentiment
it proposes to dredge and then dispose of
in New Jersey and Delaware. The Army Corps
has also not analyzed the impact the project
will have on surface water and groundwater
quality, or the impact the project will have
on the states’ ability to meet federal
Clean Air Act standards.
In its motion in support of
Delaware’s suit, New Jersey says that
the Army Corps is relying on outdated information,
and the project could “nullify recent
environmental improvements in the project
area.”
The project will deepen the
main navigation channel of the Delaware from
40 feet to 45 feet and generate an estimated
16.3 million cubic yards of dredged material
that is likely contaminated, the suit states.
The states say the Army Corps
has failed to obtain approvals as required
by the federal Clean Water Act, the Clean
Air Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act and
other environmental laws.
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 motion to
intervene on behalf of the state.
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