U.S. judge hears sides in transport-hub case
Russellville-area facility long litigated
A federal judge heard a few hours’ worth of arguments Thursday from opponents and proponents of a plan to build an intermodal transportation facility south of Russellville that would cost upward of $50 million.
Opponents say the project, which has been trying to move forward for more than 15 years, would flood parts of neighboring Dardanelle and endanger wildlife. Proponents say the flooding and other harm would be minimal, especially compared with other potential sites in the Arkansas River Valley that have been studied at length.
U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., who asked numerous questions during the hearing to supplement hundreds of pages of legal filings he has received as a result of a 2014 lawsuit brought by Dardanelle and the Yell County Wildlife Association, said he will issue an order “in due course.”
Both sides are seeking summary judgment — a ruling based on legal facts alone.
An earlier lawsuit filed over the project in March 2003 challenged the sufficiency of an environmental assessment conducted by the U.S. Corps of Engineers after Russellville officials requested a feasibility study in late 1997 for a slack-water harbor. In that case, U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson sided with the plaintiffs, who complained that the assessment didn’t constitute a “hard look” to determine the cumulative effects of the broader project.
Wilson enjoined the Corps from proceeding, and a month later, the Federal Highway Administration took over as the lead federal agency on the project. For the past 10 years, the highway administration and the Corps, now considered a “cooperating agency,” have worked on what they say was a more comprehensive study. The more-thorough study resulted in a Nov. 13,
2013, official decision from the highway administration that “no significant environmental impact” was expected from the project.
That led to the 2014 lawsuit, which for the past 3½ years has been lying mostly dormant but that Marshall has indicated he would like to clear off his docket. Officials in Russellville and others on the River Valley Regional Intermodal Authority, which formed in the late 1990s, also want the lawsuit to end in the hopes that they can proceed with the project, which has been cleared for construction pending a court ruling and federal funding.
The officials say the intermodal facility is necessary to promote economic development in an area that includes Pope, Yell, Conway, Johnson, Logan and Perry counties. The proposed 880-acre complex would link three modes of transportation — water, highway and rail. The water component would provide commercial navigation through a slack-water harbor connected to the Arkansas River. The highway portion would connect to Interstate 40 north of Russellville, and a short-line railroad would connect to the national railroad grid.
Attorney Richard Mays, who has represented the plaintiffs in both lawsuits, has said: “My clients are not opposed to the intermodal facility. They just don’t want it there.”
He was referring to a location, known as the “green site” on a map of possibilities, that the highway administration and the Corps favor. The agencies say the location would cause the least amount of flooding, dredging and expense — while also providing the most benefits — when compared to several other locations in the river valley that were considered and examined.
The plaintiffs contend that the River Valley Regional Intermodal Authority improperly hired a biased contractor to examine all the areas so that the authority could ensure that the green site was selected.
But on Thursday, attorneys Amarveer S. Brar and Krystalyn Kinsel, representing the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation, respectively, insisted that the highway administration has provided “rigorous” oversight to guard against any potential conflicts of interest and ensure that the integrity of the National Environmental Policy Act was maintained.
The plaintiffs maintain that the 10-year study still hasn’t been rigorous enough and therefore violates federal law.
Marshall must determine whether all statutory procedures were followed, but he told the parties Thursday that the court “is not in the business of second-guessing the experts.”
The plaintiffs haven’t suggested a preferred site for the project, but are vehemently opposed to the green site, which they say would cause flooding of homes and businesses in Dardanelle, across the Arkansas River from Russellville, and in the Holla Bend Wildlife Refuge 5 miles downstream from Dardanelle. The refuge is a 7,000-acre feeding and resting area for migratory waterfowl as well as a habitat for endangered and threatened species.
Brar argued that the Corps’ supplemental study was thorough and responsive to public feedback. He rebutted the notion that the 10-year study was “a rubber-stamp job.”
“The issue is whether the Corps complied with [the National Environmental Policy Act] and whether there was a ‘hard look’ taken,” he said, insisting that a voluminous record proves that the answer to both questions is yes.
The plaintiffs maintain that the 10-year study still hasn’t been rigorous enough and therefore violates federal law.