Court Rejects Army Corps Permit for King William Reservoir
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
By: Chuck Epes
See the original article at:
http://www.cbf.org/site/News2?abbr=SB_News_&page=NewsArticle&id=40417
U.S. District Court Judge in D.C. Finds Permit "Arbitrary and Capricious"
(WASHINGTON, D.C.)—In a huge win for the Chesapeake Bay and project opponents, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit for the King William reservoir in King William County, Va.,
In his ruling yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. said the Army Corps "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" when it found that the reservoir was the least damaging practicable alternative. The judge also found arbitrary and capricious the Corps' conclusion that the permit will not cause or contribute to significant degradation of the waters of the United States and that the permit complies with the public interest.
The judge further ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acted arbitrarily and capriciously by considering factors outside of its statutory authority when it opted not to veto the Corps' permit.
The court ruling is a great victory for the plaintiffs in the case the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Alliance to Save the Mattaponi, the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, and the Mattaponi Tribe, all of whom challenged the Corps permit after it was issued to the City of Newport News in 2005.
"This project was ill-conceived and environmentally destructive when it was proposed 20 years ago, and the court is saying it still is," said Jon Mueller, litigation director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). "The immense damage that would be caused by this project was always out of proportion to the alleged need."
"This is a profound victory for the Chesapeake Bay, its natural resources, and the thousands of citizens and landowners who have fought this project for decades," said Roy Hoagland, CBF vice president for environmental protection and restoration.
If built, the reservoir would destroy more than 430 acres of pristine Chesapeake Bay wetlands, threaten American shad, and flood Native American archaeological sites.
Deborah Murray, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents the environmental plaintiffs in the case, said, "As the court noted, the reservoir project would represent the single largest authorized loss of wetlands in the Mid-Atlantic in the history of the Clean Water Act."
Newport News has sought to build the 1,500-acre reservoir in King William for at least two decades, and local residents, Native Americans, and conservationists have steadfastly opposed it every step of the way. CBF and its partners have long argued that there are other alternatives available, from conservation to smaller reservoirs; that Newport News has never legitimately established the need for the amount of water the huge reservoir would provide; and that the plan to mitigate the wetland destruction failed to compensate for the degraded and destroyed acres and functions of the wetlands.
The Army Corps of Engineers initially rejected Newport News' request to build the reservoir years ago after conducting a comprehensive study of the proposal and concluding that the reservoir was not in the public interest. However, then-Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore objected, bumping the decision to higher Army Corps officials, and with the recent Bush Administration's retreat on wetlands protection across the nation, the Corps reversed itself and issued Newport News the permit in 2005.
CBF and its partners, along with two committed Virginia legislators—Delegate Albert Pollard and Delegate Harvey Morgan have relentlessly argued the facts in opposition to this environmentally disastrous project. With the federal court's decision, science and the law prevailed, and politics failed.
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Participate by NOT Participating
Buy Nothing Day
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Buy Nothing Day Link
NOVEMBER 24 IS BUY NOTHING DAY - NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
(November 25 outside of North America)
THE ULTIMATE REFUND: On November 24th and 25th – the busiest days in the American retail calendar and the unofficial start of the international Christmas-shopping season – thousands of activists and concerned citizens in 65 countries will take a 24-hour consumer detox as part of the 14th annual Buy Nothing Day, a global phenomenon that originated in Vancouver, Canada.
From joining zombie marches through malls to organizing credit card cut-ups and shopoholic clinics, Buy Nothing Day activists aim to challenge themselves, their families and their friends to switch off from shopping and tune back into life for one day. Featured in recent years by the likes of CNN, Wired, the BBC, and the CBC, the global event is celebrated as a relaxed family holiday, as a non-commercial street party, or even as a politically charged public protest. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending.
Reasons for participating in Buy Nothing Day are as varied as the people who choose to participate. Some see it as an escape from the marketing mind games and frantic consumer binge that has come to characterize the holiday season, and our culture in general. Others use it to expose the environmental and ethical consequences of overconsumption.
Two recent, high-profile disaster warnings outline the sudden urgency of our dilemma. First, in October, a global warming report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern predicted that climate change will lead to the most massive and widest-ranging market failure the world has ever seen. Soon after, a major study published in the journal Science forecast the near-total collapse of global fisheries within 40 years.
Kalle Lasn, co-founder of the Adbusters Media Foundation, which was responsible for turning Buy Nothing Day into an international annual event, said, “Our headlong plunge into ecological collapse requires a profound shift in the way we see things. Driving hybrid cars and limiting industrial emissions is great, but they are band-aid solutions if we don’t address the core problem: we have to consume less. This is the message of Buy Nothing Day.”
As Lasn suggests, Buy Nothing Day isn't just about changing your habits for one day. It’s about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste. With six billion people on the planet, the onus if on the most affluent – the upper 20% that consumes 80% of the world’s resources – to begin setting the example.
For more information and media interviews contact
MEDIA LIASON: Laura Fauth
TELEPHONE NUMBER: 604-736-9401
EMAIL: media-pr [at] adbusters [dot] org
Editor’s Notes
[1] For more information on Adbusters, Buy Nothing Day, or to watch Kalle Lasn’s 2004 Buy Nothing Day interview with CNN visit www.adbusters.org
[2] Buy Nothing Day facts:
* The first BND was organized in Vancouver in September 1992, an idea by artist Ted Dave, as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption.
* In 1997, it was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving, which is the busiest shopping pre-Christmas weekend in the US. Outside of North America, BND is usually celebrated on the following Saturday.
* Despite controversies, Adbusters managed to advertise BND on CNN, but many other major TV networks declined to air their ads.
* Soon, campaigns started appearing in US, UK, Israel, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway. Participation now spans over 65 nations.
[3] Shopping and consumption facts:
* Per capita consumption in the U.S. has risen 45 per cent in the last 20 years.
* Although people today are, on average, four-and-a-half times richer than our great-grandparents were at the turn of the century, Americans report feeling “significantly less well off” than in 1958.
* A recent article in New Scientist featured research suggesting that the more consumer goods you have the more you think you need to make you happy. Happiness through consumption is always out of reach (New Scientist, 4th October 2003, Vol.180, Issue 2415, p44. Available online after registering at www.newscientist.co.uk).
Every November, for 24 hours, we remember that no one was born to shop. If you’ve never taken part in Buy Nothing Day, or if you’ve taken part in the past but haven’t really committed to doing it again, consider this: 2006 will go down as the year in which mainstream dialogue about global warming finally reached its critical mass. What better way to bring the Year of Global Warming to a close than to point in the direction of real alternatives to the unbridled consumption that has created this quagmire?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Buy Nothing Day Link
NOVEMBER 24 IS BUY NOTHING DAY - NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
(November 25 outside of North America)
THE ULTIMATE REFUND: On November 24th and 25th – the busiest days in the American retail calendar and the unofficial start of the international Christmas-shopping season – thousands of activists and concerned citizens in 65 countries will take a 24-hour consumer detox as part of the 14th annual Buy Nothing Day, a global phenomenon that originated in Vancouver, Canada.
From joining zombie marches through malls to organizing credit card cut-ups and shopoholic clinics, Buy Nothing Day activists aim to challenge themselves, their families and their friends to switch off from shopping and tune back into life for one day. Featured in recent years by the likes of CNN, Wired, the BBC, and the CBC, the global event is celebrated as a relaxed family holiday, as a non-commercial street party, or even as a politically charged public protest. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending.
Reasons for participating in Buy Nothing Day are as varied as the people who choose to participate. Some see it as an escape from the marketing mind games and frantic consumer binge that has come to characterize the holiday season, and our culture in general. Others use it to expose the environmental and ethical consequences of overconsumption.
Two recent, high-profile disaster warnings outline the sudden urgency of our dilemma. First, in October, a global warming report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern predicted that climate change will lead to the most massive and widest-ranging market failure the world has ever seen. Soon after, a major study published in the journal Science forecast the near-total collapse of global fisheries within 40 years.
Kalle Lasn, co-founder of the Adbusters Media Foundation, which was responsible for turning Buy Nothing Day into an international annual event, said, “Our headlong plunge into ecological collapse requires a profound shift in the way we see things. Driving hybrid cars and limiting industrial emissions is great, but they are band-aid solutions if we don’t address the core problem: we have to consume less. This is the message of Buy Nothing Day.”
As Lasn suggests, Buy Nothing Day isn't just about changing your habits for one day. It’s about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste. With six billion people on the planet, the onus if on the most affluent – the upper 20% that consumes 80% of the world’s resources – to begin setting the example.
For more information and media interviews contact
MEDIA LIASON: Laura Fauth
TELEPHONE NUMBER: 604-736-9401
EMAIL: media-pr [at] adbusters [dot] org
Editor’s Notes
[1] For more information on Adbusters, Buy Nothing Day, or to watch Kalle Lasn’s 2004 Buy Nothing Day interview with CNN visit www.adbusters.org
[2] Buy Nothing Day facts:
* The first BND was organized in Vancouver in September 1992, an idea by artist Ted Dave, as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption.
* In 1997, it was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving, which is the busiest shopping pre-Christmas weekend in the US. Outside of North America, BND is usually celebrated on the following Saturday.
* Despite controversies, Adbusters managed to advertise BND on CNN, but many other major TV networks declined to air their ads.
* Soon, campaigns started appearing in US, UK, Israel, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway. Participation now spans over 65 nations.
[3] Shopping and consumption facts:
* Per capita consumption in the U.S. has risen 45 per cent in the last 20 years.
* Although people today are, on average, four-and-a-half times richer than our great-grandparents were at the turn of the century, Americans report feeling “significantly less well off” than in 1958.
* A recent article in New Scientist featured research suggesting that the more consumer goods you have the more you think you need to make you happy. Happiness through consumption is always out of reach (New Scientist, 4th October 2003, Vol.180, Issue 2415, p44. Available online after registering at www.newscientist.co.uk).
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