GBCPA
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June
24, 2003
CONTACT: Katie
Chimenti, 281-326-3343
Nancy
Edmonson, 281-471-4567
Bayport Lawsuit Filed: We Need the Truth
A broad coalition of cities,
conservation groups and other
organizations today filed suit in federal
court in Galveston
against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
regarding the
giant container port and cruise
terminal proposed
for Bayport. The Corps of Engineers
is charged with processing
the Port of Houston
Authority's
application for a permit to build this facility.
The suit alleges
three
major violations of the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) and the federal Clean Water
Act. It requests that the
federal District Court order
the Corps to prepare
a Supplemental Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) due
to deficiencies
in the Final EIS that was released
by the Corps on May 16, 2003. The
suit also asks that the wetlands policy being
followed by the Galveston
District be overturned by the
court as illegal rule-making and
that the Corps be required
to reconsider the
extent of wetlands at the
site.
Joint filers
of the lawsuit are
the Cities of Shoreacres and
Taylor Lake Village, the
Galveston Bay Conservation
and Preservation Association (GBCPA), Galveston Bay Foundation, Houston Audubon Society,
Gulf Restoration Network,
Texas Committee
on Natural Resources, Houston
Yacht Club, the seafood professionals'
organization PISCES, and the air pollution watchdog group GHASP--Galveston
Houston Association for Smog Prevention.
"The
public has a right to be told the truth in an
EIS, and that has not happened yet," said Jim Blackburn, chair of
GBCPA. "We have a right to see
an honest and unbiased
analysis, and we are still waiting for this. Thatıs why
we are going to court."
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Bayport Lawuit Filed
2 of 3
Mayor Nancy Edmonson of Shoreacres, the community immediately
north of the Bayport channel,
underscored the
point that the Final EIS contains new
information and is far from final.
"After five
years of fighting this project,
we have only now been
told that air pollution and noise standards
will be violated, and that we
will experience vibration from ships that could cause
problems in our residential
community," said Edmonson. "We
have been
saying all along that there would be problems,
yet only at the
very end of this process
are we beginning to see
the first glimmer
of the truth being acknowledged
by the federal permitting agency."
The biggest
concern expressed by the plaintiffs
involves the assessment
of alternatives to the
Bayport site. Under
Corps rules, if wetlands are
to be filled for a project,
the Corps must choose
the least damaging, environmentally
preferable alternative.
In April, Colonel Leonard Waterworth, commander
of the Corps' Galveston
District, issued a permit to the
City of Texas City
to build a container facility at Shoal Point. This new
port will handle more containers
than would the proposed Bayport
facility, and it will guarantee that the greater
Houston region remains competitive
in container traffic.
"Col. Waterworth found that Shoal Point was the
least damaging practicable
alternative site
for a container port on Galveston Bay," said Blackburn.
"But now we have an EIS issued
for Bayport that fails even to mention the
issuing of the Shoal Point permit,
let alone that the
colonel found the
Texas City site
to be the best one for our bay
system. Something
is wrong here. Thatıs why we are going to court."
The wetlands
analysis at Bayport poses other types
of problems. Although over
140 acres of wetlands were
identified on the
site, only 19.7 acres
were considered
to be "jurisdictional" under
the Clean Water Act. Further,
the Port of Houston
Authority
has proposed only 66 acres
of mitigation for wetland losses.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service has stated
that these wetlands are
unique and of national importance,
and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has questioned
the manner in which the
Corps determined that it had
regulatory authority over
only 19.7 acres.
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Bayport Lawuit Filed
3 of 3
"We
are involved in this
litigation because of the
wetland and habitat issues,"
said Joy Hester, executive director
of the Houston Audubon Society.
"These are coastal prairie
wetlands that are
extremely important to us and the
birds as well as to the
bay. We agree with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service that these
are wetlands of great
significance to the region
and to the nation."
One of the
most important issues included in the
lawsuit is concern over the
widening and deepening
of the Houston Ship Channel.
In the later 1980s,
environmentalists
and the Port of Houston
Authority
fought over this and reached
a settlement whereby
the channel would be
dredged to 45 feet
deep
and 530 feet
wide. In the
plans for Bayport, the container docks are
to be constructed
to 56 feet
of depth, and the
wharf cranes are sized
for post-Panamax vessels,
which have a depth requirement
of 45 to 53 feet.
"It is clear
that a deeper
channel will be needed
for this port," said Blackburn. "In both the
Draft EIS and the Final EIS, the
Corps stated that a deeper
channel would be
necessary and that they
were analyzing the
impacts, yet no such analysis could be
found in the Final EIS. A deeper
channel would bring more
salt water into Galveston Bay, and the quickest
way to kill the marine productivity
the oysters and the
shrimp and juvenile finfish is to increase
the salinity in the
bay. Bayport is a bona fide threat
to Galveston
Bay. We
canıt let this happen."
Mayor Edmonson noted
that t(e permit already issued
for the Texas City container terminal
is a relief valve for pressure
on existing facilities
for some time to come,
and that other alternatives
to the Bayport site
exist, should additional capacity still be
needed.
"Harris County recently issued
a report contradicting the
Portıs analysis of development costs for Spilman's Island in the Ship Channel,"
Edmonson said. "The Port has
consistently told us that Spilman's Island
is too expensive to develop,
but now the County offers
us a different picture.
What we need
is the truth. Apparently
the only way to get
it is to go to court."
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To view actual filing please use the following hyperlink
../Legal/GBCPA_vs_USACE.pdf
Galveston Bay Conservation
and Preservation Association
P.O. Box 323, Seabrook,
Texas
77586 Phone:
281-326-3343
Website:
www.gbcpa.net E-mail: gbcpa@ev1.net