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Cape Fear River Watch v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Filing Date: 2021
Case Categories:
  • Federal Statutory Claims
    • NEPA
Principal Laws:
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Administrative Procedure Act (APA)
Description: Lawsuit challenging the elimination of seasonal restrictions on "hopper dredging."
  • Cape Fear River Watch v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
    Docket number(s): 7:21-cv-138
    Court/Admin Entity: E.D.N.C.
    Case Documents:
    Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary
    08/04/2021 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Lawsuit Challenged Removal of Seasonal Restrictions on “Hopper Dredging” in North Carolina Harbors. A lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the Eastern District of North Carolina alleged that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acted in violation of NEPA and the Administrative Procedure Act when it ended seasonal restrictions on hopper dredging at Wilmington and Morehead City Harbors in North Carolina. The complaint alleged that hopper dredges were “massive vessels that operate like a vacuum cleaner” by sucking up bottom sediment and discharging it into a “hopper” within the vessel until disposal, and that such dredging “poses a unique and often fatal risk to aquatic wildlife.” The complaint alleges that the Corps failed to adequately address or disclose impacts of eliminating the restrictions, including climate change impacts such as “the compounding impacts climate change will have on species, water quality, water temperatures, or the affected project area.”

© 2022 · Sabin Center for Climate Change Law · U.S. Litigation Chart made in collaboration with Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP

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