 |
|
 |
|
ESA within the Beltway On February 6, the National Wilderness Institute, a private property rights advocacy organization, filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several federal co-defendants, alleging lax enforcement of the Endangered Species Act in its permitting for the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which is planned to replace the current bridge of the same name, spanning the Potomac River between Washington, DC and Virginia. NWI is obviously interested in making a point about unequal enforcement of this notoriously inflexible law. Although the threats NWI's suit identifies to three protected species-the bald eagle, the shortnose sturgeon, and the dwarf wedge mussel-are slim, NWI points out that ESA enforcement in the West has focused on equally slender risks. NWI makes the point that EPA's approved prescription for protecting the sturgeon during construction includes modifying the immediate habitat to make it unattractive to the sturgeon and, thus, to decrease the likelihood of a "take." In most of the country, of course, green litigators have established that habitat modification is itself an illegal "take." The February 7 Washington Post reported that the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club "welcomed the lawsuit." Return to Public Policy Archive Forest Resources Association
Inc. (FRA) |
 |