Posted on December 14, 2017
By Eric Heisig, Cleveland.com
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dropped its challenge to a federal judge’s ruling that the agency abused its discretion when it refused to dredge the six-mile Cleveland Harbor and Cuyahoga River shipping channel in 2015.
Senior U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent ruled in May that the Army Corps erred two years ago when it said sediment was not harmful to Lake Erie’s ecosystem and refused to dredge the area. That ruling — that the Army Corps was in the wrong for the 2015 project — followed a 2015 ruling in which Nugent forced the Army Corps to dredge and pay for the cost of dumping the sediment into containment dikes instead of the lake.
The Army Corps appealed Nugent’s decision on Dec. 1. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dropped the case Monday after the Army Corps asked for the dismissal.
News of the appeal upset Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Craig Butler, who has said the Army Corps and local and state officials have worked better together in recent months. Butler said in a Dec. 1 statement that “the Corps’ decision to appeal the judge’s ruling is a terrible misstep, backwards.”
Andrew Kornacki, a spokesman for the Army Corps’ Buffalo, New York district, declined to discuss the lawsuit and referred a reporter to the Justice Department. U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Mike Tobin declined to comment.
Kornacki said the Corps is focused on improving relations with those who deal with the Cleveland Harbor. There are plans to dredge the harbor as early as May 2018, he said.
Butler said in a statement late Tuesday that “Ohio is glad that the Corps dropped its appeal of the 2015 Cleveland Harbor case.
“Now we can get back to work on the many projects that will improve Lake Erie water quality and commerce,” Butler continued. “I hope this also means that the Corps will not pursue the 2016 case and we can put this negative issue behind us once and for all.”
In past years, the Army Corps has fought demands by the state to dispose of sediment dredged from the shipping channel into containment dikes, instead of in Lake Erie. At issue was the sediment dredged of the sixth mile, which serves the ArcelorMittal steel mill.
The state EPA said the sludge would pollute the lake. But the Corps disagreed and refused to dredge the shipping channel in 2015 and 2016 unless the state paid to dispose of the sediment. The Corps eventually dredged during both years.
A lawsuit over the 2016 standoff is pending in federal court.
The Army Corps has already received a water quality certification for its 2018 dredging project and will place dredged sediment into containment dikes, Kornacki said.
Source: cleveland.com
