ELR Citation: ELR 20180
No(s). 07-1756 (D.D.C. Jun 30, 2010)

A district court held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated NEPA and the CWA when it issued a dredge-and-fill permit for a 500-acre multi-use development project near Tampa, Florida. The project site includes 155.46 acres of wetlands. While the Corps took a hard look at some of the environmental consequences of the issuance of the permit, it failed to make a "convincing case" that the potential environmental impact is not significant enough to require preparation of an EIS. Moreover, its determination that there would not be significant environmental impacts is so contrary to the record that the court found it to be nothing short of arbitrary and capricious. In addition, the Corps violated the CWA. It failed to require practicable alternatives, and it arbitrarily and capriciously concluded there would be no significant degradation of a creek and its wetlands and no violations of state water quality standards. But the court rejected claims that the Corps and the FWS violated the ESA by failing to engage in formal consultation on the development's impact on protected species.