“This project cannot proceed until and unless the Corps obtains a South Carolina Pollution Control Act permit that guarantees the right of citizens to review the proposal and reduce its serious impacts on the Savannah River,” said Chris DeScherer, senior attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center. “The federal government cannot ignore South Carolina’s process to protect the health of the state’s natural resources and its residents against the risks and harm of deepening. As it stands now, the Corps proposes to dredge up potentially toxic pollutants, dump spoils in South Carolina, and damage the river so badly it needs mechanical life support that the government’s own experts say could be lethal.”

According to the claim filed in state circuit court in Jasper County, the Corps failed to obtain a permit that would ensure the implementation of pollution controls during its 38-mile deepening project as required by South Carolina law. Dredging to deepen the river to the planned 48 feet will stir up toxic cadmium and other pollutants and discharge the pollution into the water. Exposure to certain forms and concentrations of cadmium is known to produce toxic effects on humans. The Corps plans to dump much of its dredging spoil in Jasper County, South Carolina.

The $650 million deepening project will deplete the Savannah River’s dissolved oxygen levels so much that the Corps proposes to put the river on untested mechanical life support—called Speece cones—for perpetuity. Even if Speece cones work and funds are found for their ongoing maintenance, the Corps’ own experts report that “the oxygen injection system proposed (Speece cones) could have lethal impacts to fish species.” Endangered and threatened short-nosed sturgeon, American shad and striped bass in the Savannah River would be among the fish harmed by either the deepening or the Corps’ proposed Speece cones.

Lower oxygen levels in the Savannah River from deepening will also create complications for industrial dischargers and lake communities upstream, and seasonal dead zones compounded by salt water intrusion further into the river and the ground water supplies for local communities on both sides of the river.

Attorneys from the Southern Environmental Law Center filed today’s claim in state court on behalf of the Savannah Riverkeeper, based in Augusta, as well as the Coastal Conservation League and the South Carolina Wildlife Federation.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Georgia Ports Authority propose to spend $650 million in taxpayer money and irreparably harm the river despite the Corps’ finding that deepening the river for large “post-panamax” ships would not increase Savannah’s port business and that cargo volume would remain the same even without the costly deepening project.

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The Southern Environmental Law Center is a regional nonprofit using the power of the law to protect the health and environment of the Southeast (Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama). Founded in 1986, SELC’s team of more than 40 legal and policy experts represent more than 100 partner groups on issues of climate change and energy, air and water quality, forests, the coast and wetlands, transportation, and land use.
WEB: www.SouthernEnvironment.org
TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/selc_org

The agency reduced the potential leasing area in Virginia by 19% to accommodate shipping interests and concerns from the Coast Guard, leaving open some 113,000 acres.  BOEM said it expects to issue numerous leases in the mid-Atlantic this year resulting from a competitive bidding process. 

A statement from David Carr, SELC senior attorney and general counsel:

"We  commend the Obama Administration for taking this vital step towards bringing offshore wind energy to Virginia and other mid-Atlantic states.

"The offshore wind industry has the potential to create huge amounts of power and thousands of jobs , while reducing our dependence on dirty fossil fuels. It's time now for Virginia to double-down on its  support for developing a truly sustainable energy future, beginning with shifting Governor McDonnell's misplaced emphasis on opening our coast to oil and gas drilling to instead developing this clean energy source."
 

The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act is expected to be in mark-up in the House Natural Resources Committee today, and in mark-up in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee tomorrow.

"This bill is less about creating jobs and more about giving the green light to the oil industry and road-builders," said Navis Bermudez, SELC deputy legislative director. "The House leadership is clearly not interested in providing Americans a fiscally and environmentally sound transportation system for the 21st century. By contrast, the Senate sees this bill for the political grandstanding that it is, and has indicated it will not take the bill seriously."

The bill holds some especially dangerous proposals for the South, including:

• Exempting highway projects that are declared to be for economic development from any review under the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock law that ensures opportunity for citizen input and a reasonable calculation as to the cost-benefit of such projects.  If the law were in effect, hugely expensive and unnecessary highways in the South would likely be on a fast-track for approval:

o Northern Beltline in Birmingham, AL-$4.7 billion
o Garden Parkway and Monroe Bypass in Charlotte, NC-$960 million and $800 million
o I-526 Extension in Charleston, SC-$489 million
o I-73 in Myrtle Beach, SC-$2.4 billion
o I-75/575 Expansion in Atlanta-$1 billion
o U.S. 460 Expansion in Virginia-$1.6 billion
o U.S. 29 Bypass in Charlottesville, VA-$250 million

• Opening the Virginia coast to offshore oil drilling to pay for the transportation bill, despite the administration's decision in December to delay a controversial lease sale. In addition to threatening the environment and coastal economies, relying on uncertain revenue from drilling instead of the existing gas tax to fund the nation's transportation infrastructure is risky business; even fiscal conservatives object to this change.
• Severely cutting funding for Amtrak at a time when ridership on Virginia and North Carolina lines is rising faster than any others in the country; 
• Failing to prioritize repair of crumbling bridges; there are over 22,000 structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges in SELC's six-state region.
• Spending almost eight times more on project loans while eliminating key criteria for reviewing loan applications that help ensure taxpayer funds are spent wisely

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WEB: www.SouthernEnvironment.org
FACEBOOK: http://www.fanofselc.org
TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/selc_org
 

The following endangered areas were chosen from among hundreds of special places that the SELC is defending through its law and policy work in the six states of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

Alabama’s coast: Following the tragic BP spill, the government has returned to business as usual and is authorizing risky deepwater drilling projects under the same assumptions that failed in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This approach is irresponsible, illegal, and poses an ongoing threat to Alabama’s beaches, marshes, wildlife, and coastal communities. 
 


Dawson Forest, Georgia: A costly, unnecessary proposed reservoir would siphon 100 million gallons per day from the Etowah River to fuel metro Atlanta’s unchecked sprawl, threatening prime habitat for endangered aquatic life, water supplies of downstream communities, and a popular recreation area.
 


Catawba-Wateree River Basin, North Carolina & South Carolina: The health of the Catawba-Wateree River, which provides drinking water for hundreds of thousands of residents of central North Carolina and South Carolina, faces an array of threats, including pollution from toxin-laden coal ash ponds, hydroelectric dams that will continue to disrupt stream flows and fish migration, water withdrawals that rob water from downstream farms and communities, and unnecessary reservoir projects that promote inefficient development and water use.



North Carolina Piedmont: The gas drilling industry and its allies in the North Carolina General Assembly are pushing hard to pass legislation that would expedite hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. ‘fracking’) to extract natural gas, despite mounting evidence that the drilling technique, in the absence of appropriate regulatory controls, can lead to the contamination of groundwater and surface water. Potential fracking sites in North Carolina’s Piedmont are underneath or upstream from water supplies for 2.4 million people. 



Savannah River, South Carolina & Georgia: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to deepen 38 miles of the Savannah River shipping channel would increase saltwater intrusion in the river and jeopardize freshwater marshlands in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, drinking water supplies for Savannah and other communities, and habitat for endangered aquatic species. 


 
Chilhowee Mountain, Tennessee: The outdated plan for completing Corridor K between Chattanooga and Asheville includes a proposal to cut a new four-lane highway through the Cherokee National Forest near the Ocoee Gorge, even though improvements to the existing two-lane highway on its current footprint would be less damaging, less costly, and no less effective.

Chesapeake Bay, Virginia: For decades the Bay has suffered from pollution from all sides—air, land, and water. Unfortunately, industry interests and their political allies are doing all they can to impede a comprehensive rescue plan.

Mountains of Tennessee & Virginia: Mountaintop removal and other destructive coal mining practices have already destroyed at least 500 mountains and damaged 1,700 miles of streams in Virginia, Tennessee and other central Southern Appalachian states, and pressure continues to mount.

Charlottesville, Virginia & Surrounding Countryside: Local and state decision-makers are attempting to revive a wasteful, destructive and ineffective proposed bypass that would leave a permanent scar on one of the South’s most special communities.

Southside Virginia: An intense push to mine uranium in southern Virginia risks polluting drinking water supplies with radioactive and toxin-laden wastewater. Lifting the state’s ban on uranium mining could open up Virginia’s Piedmont countryside to more large-scale mining projects.

About the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) 


SELC is the largest environmental organization focused exclusively on the South. For 25 years, the Southern Environmental Law Center has worked successfully in all three branches of government to create, implement, and enforce environmental law and policy. Their major programs cover clean energy, transportation and land use, southern forests, the coast and wetlands, and preservation of rural countryside and community character. SELC has 46 attorneys (out of a total staff of 90) and offices in Charlottesville (SELC’s headquarters) and Richmond, Virginia; Chapel Hill and Asheville, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; and Washington, D.C. www.SouthernEnvironment.org. 


To read the report, click here.

Amtrak service in the Commonwealth has grown by over 50 percent during the last five years, and two of the top three best performing regional train routes in Amtrak's system are in the Commonwealth. Virginians are proving that they want the transportation choices that intercity passenger trains provide, and they want more train options.

The report also highlights the fact that the Commonwealth needs an estimated $115.4 million over the next five years to sustain these regional trains. If Virginia does not fund the continued operation of these trains, it will not only lose critical transportation options but it could cost taxpayers over $1 billion to reinstate train service that is discontinued.

Two pieces of legislation introduced in the 2012 General Assembly session partially fund the Virginia Intercity Passenger Rail Operating and Capital Fund (IPROC) and the Commonwealth's regional trains. First, Governor McDonnell included short-term funding of $26.1 million in his 2012-2014 biennial budget sponsored by Senator Chuck Colgan (Senate Bill 30) and Delegate Lacy Putney (House Bill 30) which will fund the continued operation of the regional trains for the next two years. Second, Senator John Watkins introduced a budget item in the 2010-2012 biennial budget that would direct $67.2 million from the Commonwealth's budget surplus to IPROC which can be used for infrastructure or operations. These proposals are important short-term measures, and they should be adopted. However, we also need to identify a long-term, dedicated, and sustainable funding source to allow our trains to operate beyond 2014.

"The record performance of rail in Virginia last year shows that people want more transportation choices," said Trip Pollard, Director of the Southern Environmental Law Center's Land and Community Program. "Intercity rail is a cleaner, more efficient option that can reduce congestion, pollution, and dependence on foreign oil while promoting community revitalization and economic growth."

Jack Hornbeck, CCE, President & CEO of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, said, "The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce has long supported improved transportation infrastructure. This region has a unique national asset, containing the largest concentration of federal activities anywhere in the country outside of D.C. Dependable, efficient, and cost effective rail service to and from the D.C. area would provide a vital transportation link."

"Virginia's regional trains are important to our economy creating jobs, removing cars from the roads, and connecting the Commonwealth's population centers to each other and to the Northeast Corridor" stated Danny Plaugher, Executive Director of Virginians for High Speed Rail, "That is why we need the General Assembly to act and make sure that we do not lose Virginia's regional train service."

Virginians for High Speed Rail (VHSR) is a non-profit 501(C)(3) coalition, founded in 1994, that educates and advocates for the improvement and expansion of fast, frequent, and reliable intercity and high speed passenger rail service connecting Virginia to the northeast and southeast corridors. For more information visit www.vhsr.com.

Bob Burnley, the former director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, responded, "It is encouraging that the Governor has elected to keep the mining ban in place.  At the same time, the details of the announcement raise some concerns." Mr. Burnley is serving as an independent consultant to the Southern Environmental Law Center on this issue.

On December 19th, the National Academy of Sciences released a report raising serious questions as to whether uranium could ever be mined safely in Virginia. 

Cale Jaffe, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, stated, "Given the significant warnings from the National Academy of Sciences, I think what we are seeing is that Virginia Uranium, Inc. lacks sufficient support in the General Assembly to move its agenda forward."

Burnley added, "The National Academy of Sciences report provides convincing evidence that uranium mining, milling, and waste disposal would be impractical in Virginia."

The Southern Environmental Law Center and Mr. Burnley also questioned the fiscal prudence of the Governor's approach, given that state agencies currently have no budget or staff devoted to uranium mining.  As the NAS concluded that "the state has essentially no experience regulating uranium mining..." [NAS Report, p. 179]

Jaffe stated, "DEQ is struggling to fund its existing obligations.  The Governor's budget, for example, calls for transferring the clean air program to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unless stakeholders can reach an agreement to increase fees."  Burnley added, "There are staffing shortages due to hiring freezes; there are already serious budget constraints at state agencies."