Judge rejects injunction for JaxPort dredging project

U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has denied a motion from the non-profit St. Johns Riverkeeper for a preliminary injunction against JaxPort and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, allowing the dredging project to proceed as planned.    A federal judge for the Jacksonville Division of the Middle District of Florida has rejected a motion for a preliminary injunction against the dredging of the St. Johns River in order to allow larger cargo ships to reach terminals at the Port of Jacksonville.
   Non-profit environmental advocacy group the St. Johns Riverkeeper filed the motion for preliminary injunction Dec. 4, after the Jacksonville Port Authority (JaxPort) proposed changing the scope of its plans to deepen the St. Johns River channel from 40 feet to 47 feet in order to limit costs. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2013 approved a roughly $700 million plan to dredge 13 miles of the river channel, but JaxPort officials say the port authority would save about $200 million of that total by shortening the deepening project to just 11 miles.
   In its motion, the St. Johns Riverkeeper contended that before federal funding could be authorized and dredging could proceed with the new 11-mile plan, it must be formally evaluated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assess environmental impacts and the economic feasibility of the project.
   “This new 11-mile plan simply does not exist according to the Army Corps,” Lisa Rinaman, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, said in a statement at the time. “Federal law requires JaxPort’s new plan to be thoroughly studied and evaluated, including the recalculation of the benefit cost ration, yet nothing has been done by the Corps to fulfill this requirement.
   “In the wake of Hurricane Irma, the urgency and importance of assessing the potential flooding impacts from dredging is even more apparent,” she added. “Failure to evaluate these impacts when we know that the dredging will likely increase storm surge and tide levels only puts our community and our river at greater risk and makes us more vulnerable in the future.”
   U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard said in the 45-page order, however, that “for purposes of the request for preliminary injunctive relief, the Court finds that the Corps appears to have taken the requisite ‘hard look’ at the data from Hurricane Irma. The Corps concluded that Hurricane Irma does not present significant new information not previously considered in the April 2014 Report, and on this limited record, Riverkeeper fails to show that such a decision is substantially likely to have been arbitrary and capricious.”
   Furthermore, Howard noted that JaxPort “has not made a final decision to forego the 13-mile dredge, much less asked the Corps to approve such a change,” and that without such “final agency action,” the court lacks the jurisdiction to require an environmental impact statement for an 11-mile dredge.
   As such, Howard denied the motion for preliminary injunction, allowing the dredging project to proceed as planned, but left the door slightly open for St. Johns Riverkeeper, writing that the organization “may be able to establish at a later stage in the proceedings that the Corps’ models are flawed.”
   The Army Corps said in December that phase I of the dredging project could begin as soon as the end of this month.
   “This is Jacksonville’s single largest opportunity to grow the port, add good jobs and better our community,” Nancy Rubin, senior director of communications at JaxPort, said of the order. “After a decade of study, independent review, public input and full regulatory approval, it is time to begin this project and bring employment and increased opportunity to our fellow citizens.”
   St. Johns Riverkeeper did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but local newspaper the Florida Times Union quoted a statement from Rinaman in which she said that although disappointing, Howard’s decision gives the organization an opportunity to further prove that the Corps did not fully and properly asses the potential impact of the project in terms of flooding caused by hurricanes and other significant storms.
   “Unfortunately, the decision by the court allows the Corps and JaxPort to begin this risky project before fulfilling their obligation to the river and this community,” Rinaman said, according to the Florida Times Union report. “We can’t afford to wait until we experience more flooding or for JaxPort to make up its mind on the scope of the project before fully assessing the environmental and economic impacts of the dredging. Once the damage is done, it will be too late.”