Citizens challenge Army Corps of Engineers re. environmental threats inOr., La.

PORTLAND, OREGON - Carol Forsloff - The Army Corps of Engineers is once again on the docket for environmental problems, along with the National Marine Fisheries  for potential endangerment of Oregon's environment, as it remains under scrutiny by citizens in Louisiana. 

In a case filed in Federal court, environmentalists are challenging gravel mining, a procedure that is to allow the mining of gravel from the lower Chatco River, even though the defendants in the suit agreed that it would damage the river's Coho salmon. 

The Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the plaintiff in this case, are in violation of the Endangered Species Act by allowing gravel mining on the river that will reduce the salmon population significantly. 

The suit further alleges that the Corps' advisory committees stand in the way of the environmental group's protect of the Northwest resources on the river that harm NEDC"s membersr' recreationals, scientific and aesthetic interests that include boating, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, sightseeing, birdwatching and wildlife viewing in the Chetco River. 

The Army Corps of Engineers has been part of the controversy now concerning the environment in Oregon and also at the opposite end of the country, Louisiana.  Louisiana citizens, through an organization callled Levees.org, demands accountability of ACE through education on its need to develop better systems of protection and the court-supported documentation that it did not fulfill its responsibilities in constructing levees with the integrity to protect New Orleans from flooding during Hurricane Katrina.  There are also concerns that ACE has used its influence to suppress knowledge and information from citizen advocates and environmental educators, even as it is accused of utilizing advantage in circumventing environmental groups concerns in Oregon.

As Mitch Landrieu, Mayor of New Orleans, Sandy Rosenthal of Levees.org and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center maintain, environmental protection is at the heart of the debate on levees and other citizen issues presently involving ACE's responsibilities.

Army Corps of Engineers accused of trampling environmental law in Florida

 

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Editor - In a court filing in Jacksonville the US Army Corps of Engineers is accused of "trampling environmental law" by allowing the strip-mining of 7,687 acres of wetlands and streams that leads to the "utter destruction of the local natural environment." 

Three environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and two others, sued the Corps and Col. Alfred Pantano over a "dredge-and-fill" permit issued in June. 

"Worse yet, the Corps downplayed the cumulative effects of this trip mine and tens of thousands of acres of similar mines on the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor estuary, an 'aquatic resource of natural interest' and drinking water source for 250,000 Floridians," according to the lawsuit. 

The complaint also discusses the permit that allows Mosaic Fertilizers to strip-mine 7,687 acres of wetlands, streams and uplands for phosphate ore in Hardee County, Florida, a place about 50 miles southeast of Tampa. 

The Corps is also accused of refusing to hold a public hearing on the matter or requiring an environmental impact statement.  In fact it had found "this permit action will not have a significant impact on the quality of the human environment."    

On the other hand, the environmentalists filing the suit say that is not true and that open pit phosphate strip-mining "has a devastating impact on the local environment." 

"Huge electrically powered draglines strip away all overlying vegetation, water bodies, topsoil, and overburden (the sandy soils that overlay the phosphate deposit) down to the phosphate containing layer," the lawsuit states. 

 "The result is the utter destruction of the local natural environment from ground surface down to a depth of approximately 80 feet." 

Environmentalists also allege violations of the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.  

This isn't the first time the Army Corps of Engineers has been on the hot seat for violations with refuse to the environment as New Orleans experience has shown, with the lack of proper maintenance of the levees being the principal reason a judge declared the agency responsible for much of the flooding of New Orleans. 

Oversight has been an issue with Mineral Management and some folks have said subsequent to the decision about the Army Corps of Engineers failures with regard to the levees, that oversight might be needed at more than one federal agency associated with environmental issues.