Village of Bald Head Island v. United States Army Corps of Engineers

833 F. Supp. 2d 524, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131402, 2011 WL 5526080
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. North Carolina
DecidedNovember 14, 2011
DocketNo. 7:10-CV-251-BO
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 833 F. Supp. 2d 524 (Village of Bald Head Island v. United States Army Corps of Engineers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Village of Bald Head Island v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, 833 F. Supp. 2d 524, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131402, 2011 WL 5526080 (E.D.N.C. 2011).

Opinion

ORDER

TERRENCE WILLIAM BOYLE, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, Plaintiffs Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, and Plaintiffs Motion for Preliminary Injunction. A hearing was held on these matters before the undersigned on October 12, 2011, in Raleigh, North Carolina and all matters are ripe for ruling. For the reasons discussed below, Defendants’ [527]*527Motion to Dismiss is granted and all other pending motions are denied as moot.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff filed this action on December 28, 2010, against the United States Army-Corps of Engineers, its officers, and the United States (hereinafter Defendants or the Corps) alleging several causes of actions arising from the Corps’ dredging and maintenance of the Wilmington Harbor Channel. Plaintiffs first six claims are brought under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. §§ 701 et seq., for violations of agency regulations, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321 et seq., the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), 16 U.S.C. §§ 1451 et seq., Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, 33 U.S.C. § 403, and Section 111 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1968, 33 U.S.C. § 426i. Plaintiff also alleges two claims for breach of contract and two claims for breach of maritime contract. DefendanNIntervenors Town of Caswell Beach and Town of Oak Island were permitted to intervene in this action by order entered January 12, 2011.

Bald Head Island and Plaintiff Village of Bald Head Island are located in Brunswick County North Carolina at the confluence of the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, directly adjacent to the Wilmington Harbor Channel. Defendant-Intervenors Town of Caswell Beach and Town of Oak Island are also located in Brunswick County, North Carolina, directly adjacent to the Wilmington Harbor Channel. Bald Head Island is situated to the east of the opening of the Channel, while the Towns of Caswell Beach and Oak Island are situated to the west of the opening of the Channel to the Atlantic Ocean.

Wilmington Harbor

Wilmington Harbor serves as one of North Carolina’s two deep-water ports, connecting the port facilities at Wilmington to the Atlantic Ocean through a thirty-seven mile channel that runs along the Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear Rivers. (EA § 1.01). The federal government assumed responsibility for managing the Wilmington Harbor in 1829, and has gradually increased the channel width and depth to accommodate the changing types and size of ships that access the port. (EA § 2). In 1996, the Water Resources Development Act authorized three projects to improve the harbor that were subsequently merged into what became referred to as the Wilmington Harbor 96 Act Project (Wilmington 96 Project). (EA § 1.02). The Wilmington 96 Project improvements included deepening ocean entrance channels and widening the channel in certain areas. Due to the discovery of an area of hard rock bottom that would require extensive blasting, which would result in increased costs and environmental harms, the Corps modified its Wilmington 96 Project plans and instead proposed to realign the ocean bar entrance channel (Modified Wilmington 96 Project or the Project) (EA §§ 1.03-1.04). The Modified Wilmington 96 Project plans also proposed that beach quality material collected as a result of the realignment dredging be deposited on nearby Brunswick County beaches, specifically Bald Head Island, Caswell Beach, Oak Island, and Holden Beach, as opposed to being dumped at an off-shore ocean dredged material deposit site (ODMDS). The Corps also proposed that beach quality material collected from future maintenance dredging operations would also be deposited on the Brunswick County beaches.

Environmental Impact of the Modified Wilmington 96 Project

Pursuant to NEPA and the CZMA, the Corps was required to reassess the poten[528]*528tial environmental impacts of realigning the ocean bar channel entrance and to obtain a consistency concurrence from the State of North Carolina’s Division of Coastal Management. The Corps issued an Environmental Assessment (EA) of the Modified Wilmington 96 Project in February 2000. In the EA, the Corps compared its modified plan of realigning the ocean bar channel entrance with the previously approved plan that was included in the 1996 Final Environmental Impact Statement. Specifically, the Corps discussed the impact of the realignment on the channel itself, the area wildlife and ecosystems, and the coastal communities of North Carolina. With regard to the disposal of beach quality dredged material, the Corps found that the modified plan would allow for the “beneficial use of this sediment and would improve the esthetic qualities of affected beaches and reduce economic threats posed by erosion.” (EA § 5.13). Details regarding the depositing of dredged material on Brunswick County beaches were set out in a Sand Management Plan (SMP) that was incorporated by reference in and attachment to the EA.

SMP

The SMP addresses the methods of disposal of material recovered from the initial realignment and subsequent maintenance dredging of the Wilmington Harbor Channel. It notes that “[yjears of research by the [Corps] and practical knowledge gained from the operation of the numerous coastal navigation projects around the country has resulted in the realization that the littoral material must be conserved.” (SMP ¶ 20). The Corps determined that depositing beach quality dredged materials on the Brunswick County beaches both helped address ongoing erosion occurring on the neighboring beaches and was the least costly disposal method for the Corps, satisfying the Corps’ policy to “regulate the discharge of dredged material from its projects to assure that dredged material disposal occurs in the least costly, environmentally acceptable manner, consistent with engineering requirements established for the project.” 33 C.F.R. § 336.1(c)(1).

Col. DeLony Letter

During the EA process, Colonel James W. DeLony, District Engineer, United States Army, wrote a letter to the mayors of the Brunswick County beaches to be affected by the SMP. In his letter, dated June 9, 2000, Colonel DeLony stated “[a]s we approach the decision point for the Finding of No Significant Impact (FON-SI), I want to bring everyone up to date on the status of our plan to place beach quality sand excavated for the project on Bald Head Island, Caswell Beach, Oak Island, and Holden Beach” [DE 2-2], The letter went on to outline the manner in which dredged material would be deposited at each of the sites following initial construction, in addition to outlining the planned disposal cycle that would follow periodic maintenance dredging of the navigation channels. Id.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
833 F. Supp. 2d 524, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131402, 2011 WL 5526080, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/village-of-bald-head-island-v-united-states-army-corps-of-engineers-nced-2011.