Delaware’s Supreme Court denied a Sierra Club appeal to halt dredging of the Assawoman Canal, perhaps ending decade-old strife surrounding the project.
The Sierra Club, an environmental protection organization, argued in December that the General Assembly had violated the “separation-of-powers” and that it did so by approving funding for the project after a state appeals board had made clear a pending decision to remand the project in lieu of another cost-benefit analysis, attorney Ken Kristl argued.
Justice Randy J. Holland wrote in a March 9 majority opinion that the Sierra Club’s arguments to overturn the earlier Chancery Court opinion, allowing dredging to continue, lacked “merit.”
“The General Assembly is empowered to define (or, in this case, redefine) what the public right shall be,” Holland wrote. “In discharging that responsibility, the General Assembly may supersede any appellate procedure or process established by its own earlier legislation.”
In his opinion issued last summer, denying the Sierra Club’s earlier request to halt the project, Chancery Court Chancellor William B. Chanlder wrote that an Environmental Appeals Board order to perform a cost-benefit analysis, which was ultimately ignored, “had no bearing whatsoever on the environmental effects of the dredging.” He continued to note that, “The decision to go forward with the dredging project, the EAB correctly observed, remained with the Legislature.”
Kristl could not be reached for comment. It is unclear whether he and the Sierra Club will appeal the latest decision to the federal level.
The Sierra Club, which has a strong presence locally that has opposed the project for nearly a decade, claims that deepening the man-made canal would harm wildlife in the canal and only benefit property owners and pilots of larger boats, who could speed through the small throughway if it is deepened.
State Rep. Gerald Hocker (R-38th), a strong proponent of the project, has consistently argued the opposite. The canal has been too shallow to support much life or spawning in the canal, he has said — a point strongly contended by local Sierra Club members. Hocker’s camp prevailed — at least briefly — when dredging began on Oct. 1 of last year in the face of an ongoing appeals process at the EAB.
“I had faith in our court of Chancery decision,” Hocker said this week. “Hopefully, we’re good to go. Overwhelmingly, people want to see that canal dredged. It needs to be done.”
Officials plan to dredge about two-thirds of the man-made canal to make the average depth 3 feet at low tide, state officials have said, allowing larger boats to navigate the shallow waterway. The project should take two to three years to complete because officials are only allowed to dredge from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, to minimize wildlife impacts.
Those working on the project completed more than 30 percent of the dredging last year before breaking work at the end of December. They plan to resume work on Sept. 1, 2007.