Lydia Ann Channel Project Halted

By:  Friends of the Wild Whoopers

Lydia Ann Channel
Lydia Ann Channel

Friends of Lydia Ann Channel (FLAC), a non-profit conservation group in Texas has won a major victory in its efforts to halt the completion and use of a mile and a half long industrial barge facility within the Lydia Ann Channel. The project is near the Aransas Wildlife Refuge, winter habitat of the endangered Whooping Cranes. FLAC’s legal Complaint claimed that USACE’s rushed authorization of the construction and operation of the project.

Endangered species habitat threaten

Barges using the channel would be accommodating hazardous materials in the middle of one of the most ecologically and recreationally significant waterways along the Texas gulf coast. The barge facility may threaten known endangered species habitat, interfere with and displaces public recreational activities such as fishing, swimming, hunting, boating, and birding, and constitutes a threat to both navigation and to public health and safety.

Letter of Permission revoked

The US Army Corps of Engineers has revoked the Letter of Permission authorizing the Lydia Ann Channel Moorings. USACE has determined that the mooring dolphins are no longer authorized and must be removed and the impacted areas restored. Click on the link below to read the full text of the revocation letter sent to LAC Moorings by the USACE. Copies were also sent to the Captain of the Port of Corpus Christi and filed with the Federal Court today.

FLAC will be negotiating conditions with the Department of Justice lawyers and Judge Jack in the coming weeks on several remaining issues, including the timing and method for removal of the structures, restoration, and our request for reimbursement of attorneys’ fees.

FLAC adds that, “Now that we have secured the win, we must turn our attention toward the future. The Devil is most certainly in the details of removal, restoration and further protection. We assure you all that FLAC will be there monitoring until the last seagrass sprig has been carefully placed on the backside of St. Jo; ensuring that GLO, the USCG and TPWD begin enforcing existing law to protect the shoreline ; and seeking additional protections for Lydia Ann Channel in hope that such a thing never happens again.”

Read the official letters from the US Army Corps of Engineers to Lydia Ann Channel Moorings and to the Captain of the Port of Corpus Christi and the official filing.

Click here to read the Letters of revocation

Click here to read the Court filing

 

For background information, click on the following link: https://friendsofthewildwhoopers.org/friends-of-lydia-ann-channel-sues-over-channel-project/

***** FOTWW’s mission is to help preserve and protect the Aransas/Wood Buffalo
population of wild whooping cranes and their habitat. *****

Friends of the Wild Whoopers is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.

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Friends of Lydia Ann Channel sues over Channel project

By:  Friends of the Wild Whoopers

Friends of Lydia Ann Channel (“FLAC”), a non-profit conservation group in Texas has filed a federal lawsuit against several officials of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“USACE) for violations of several federal laws including the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”).

FLAC’s legal Complaint claims that USACE’s rushed authorization of the construction and operation of this mile and a half long industrial barge facility within the Lydia Ann Channel. Barges using the channel will be accommodating hazardous materials in the middle of one of the most ecologically and recreationally significant waterways along the Texas gulf coast. The barge facility may threaten known endangered species habitat, interfere with and displaces public recreational activities such as fishing, swimming, hunting, boating, and birding, and constitutes a threat to both navigation and to public health and safety.

Lydia Ann Channel
Barges on Gulf Intracoastal Waterway

The Lydia Ann Channel and the affected shoreline of San Jose Island are located within Redfish Bay State Scientific Area, directly adjacent to the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve. These two areas are home to or immediately adjacent to known habitat for at least eight federally-listed endangered species: whooping crane, piping plover, rufa red knot, Atlantic hawksbill sea turtle, green sea turtle, Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, leatherback sea turtle and loggerhead sea turtle.

FLAC’s legal Complaint

According to FLAC’s legal Complaint, USACE’s authorization of this facility, and the resulting activities and work associated with its operation are substantial and pose a direct threat of harm, injury and death to individual whooping cranes and other endangered species in direct violation of Section 9 of the ESA.

The Lydia Ann Channel and San Jose Island have been used by the public for decades for recreational purposes, including fishing, hunting, swimming, boating, crabbing and wildlife photography and observation.

Whooping Crane Flock affected

The Aransas-Wood Buffalo whooping crane flock is the only natural wild flock of whooping cranes remaining in the world. The current population of the Aransas-Wood Buffalo flock is currently estimated to be only 310 individuals. This flock winters in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and nearby areas in Aransas County, Texas, including San Jose Island, which is immediately adjacent to the barge facility and the petrochemicals and hazardous materials stored there. Whooping cranes have been documented in the vicinity of San Jose Island for the last five years.

The Complaint claims that USACE was clearly put on notice by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department that there were federally listed sea turtles in the proposed project area. In addition, even the most basic review of available scientific information would have made it obvious to the USACE that other federally-listed species, specifically whooping cranes, piping plover, and rufa red knot were also in the action area of the proposed project.

FLAC is asking the Federal Court to declare the construction and operation of LAC Moorings’ barge facility unlawful and set aside the action that USACE in authorizing. A map of the project can be found by clicking here.

FOTWW voices their concern

Friends of the Wild Whoopers, a conservation group, commented that: “It seems that a “guerilla war” has been declared on the natural resources of the Texas coast. The Lydia Ann Channel project is just one of several projects and/or government regulatory decisions made during the past several years that are seriously damaging to the natural environment. Such continual chipping away at coastal resources will eventually upset the natural balance so long enjoyed by millions of citizens.

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friendsofthewildwhoopers.org

***** FOTWW’s mission is to help preserve and protect the Aransas/Wood Buffalo
population of wild whooping cranes and their habitat. *****
Friends of the Wild Whoopers is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.

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