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Newport News Scraps the King William Reservoir

added 9.23.09

Ending a legal and regulatory battle SELC and its partners have waged for 15 years, the City of Newport News, Virginia, voted September 22 to scrap plans for the King William Reservoir—an unnecessary project that would have resulted in the largest authorized destruction of wetlands in the mid-Atlantic since Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972.

The city’s decision comes in the wake of a federal court ruling SELC won on March 31 that overturned the Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the reservoir. The court found that the Corps was “arbitrary and capricious” in its conclusion that the project would not cause significant environmental harm. In addition to destroying more than 400 acres of wetlands, the impoundment would have flooded some 21 miles of streams that feed the York River and the Chesapeake Bay, and it jeopardized shad fisheries and cultural sites vitally important to Native American communities.

Stopping this massive project was a long-term, team effort among SELC, the Alliance to Save the Mattaponi, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. In addition, the Mattaponi Tribe was represented by the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law School in the tribe's fight against the reservoir.

With the help of independent scientific experts, we have shown all along that the plan to build a 1,500-acre reservoir in King William County, Virginia, was based on inflated projections of water needs and that the Newport News area could meet demand in far less destructive ways. The city now acknowledges that the area’s water use has not increased as predicted and that total water demand over the past 15 years has remained relatively unchanged. The city now plans to complete a new assessment of its water needs and to take incremental steps to increase its water supply.

We applaud the city’s decision to abandon this massive project, and we encourage Newport News to take an honest look at its future water requirements and to meet them in ways that protect natural resources and promote sensible growth.

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Previous Case Activity

Federal government drops its appeal of the court ruling overturning the permit

added 6.26.09

In a final blow to the controversial proposal to build a massive reservoir in King William County, the U.S. Department of Justice has said it will not appeal a court ruling from March overturning the Army Corps of Engineers permit for the project.

The decision brings to a close almost two decades of a legal battle waged by SELC and others on behalf of conservation groups and other stakeholders to stop construction of the 1,500-acre reservoir, which would have destroyed more than 400 acres of wetlands and many miles of streams, and harmed Native American interests in the Mattaponi and Pamunky rivers watersheds.

On March 31, the U.S. District Court in Washington overturned the permit the city had received from the Corps in 2005. The judge said the agency had acted in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner in deciding several issues, including the need for the project. The judge also found the Environmental Protection Agency acted without basis in not vetoing the permit. The U.S. DOJ, on behalf of the Corps and EPA, filed an appeal of ruling earlier in June. On June 25, it said it plans to withdraw that appeal.

The court sent the permit back to the Corps for thorough review in light of the the ruling. However, following the news that the DOJ was dropping its appeal, officials with Newport News told the media that the project "has no future."

Court overturns King William reservoir permit

added 4.1.09

In a major victory for SELC and our conservation partners in Virginia, a federal judge ruled on March 31 to overturn a permit issued by the Corps of Engineers for a massive impoundment in the Pamunkey / Mattaponi River watershed in King William County. The reservoir would destroy more than 400 acres of wetlands, the single largest, authorized loss of wetlands in the mid-Atlantic region in the past 37 years, since passage of the Clean Water Act.

The U.S. District Court in D.C., agreeing with almost all of our claims, found that the Corps' decisions in issuing the permit in 2005 were "arbitrary and capricious" on several scores:

That the reservoir would not cause significant environmental damage to aquatic resources;
That it was the least environmentally damaging alternative available;
That the wetland mitigation plan would adequately compensate for the ecological functions of the lost wetlands.

Read the judge's ruling here (pdf)