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4th Circ. Snuffs Suit Over Maryland Purple Line Water Permit
Law360 (May 13, 2021, 4:56 PM EDT) The Fourth Circuit on Thursday rejected a suit from Maryland residents alleging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to vet project alternatives that would have been less damaging to local waterways when it issued a Clean Water Act permit for the Purple Line rail extension.
A three-judge panel affirmed U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar s April 2020 decision shutting down an Administrative Procedure Act suit from local environmental group Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail and individual residents John MacKnight Fitzgerald and Leonard Scensny seeking to vacate a CWA permit that was issued in March 2018.
Maryland’s Purple Line project.
Purple Line
The third and final lawsuit against the Purple Line project in Maryland could just result in a second look.
Opponents of the light-rail project appeared in a federal appeals court on March 11 and argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued permits that allowed construction workers to discharge dredge and fill into streams and wetlands in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. The plaintiffs said this was a violation of the Clean Water Act and the Corps needed to consider their idea, which was to upgrade bus service that would be more environmentally friendly.