The organizations say the corps’ plan to start dredging as early as December - without providing a current environmental impact statement and without required permits from New Jersey, Delaware or federal agencies - violates seven federal laws and Delaware law.

“When the government is willing to break the law in a way that hurts our communities, citizens must rise up and defend the law, defend the river that sustains us all,” said Maya van Rossum, Delaware riverkeeper for the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “That is what we are doing today - defending our right to clean water, clean air, fish we can catch and feed our children, wetlands and floodplains that protect us from pollution and floods.”

The citizen groups filed their own challenges to the corps’ plan in New Jersey federal court and intervened in legal action already brought by Delaware against the corps’ project. The 140-page complaints seek a court order prohibiting the project from moving forward until all legal permits, approvals and documents have been finalized.

Delaware Riverkeeper Network was joined by National Wildlife Federation, New Jersey Environmental Federation, Clean Water Action and Delaware Nature Society in legally opposing the dredging plan.

The plan to deepen the Delaware River from 40 to 45 feet along a 102-mile stretch from Philadelphia to the ocean dates to 1992; the environmental impact statement provided by the corps dates to 1997.

David Conrad of the National Wildlife Federation said Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control in 2001 cited 55 specific problems with the project, but to date, he said, those problems have still not been addressed.

“This is one of the worst-planned projects that we have seen across the nation,” Conrad said. “The record is so vague and unclear as to what the corps plans to do.”

The groups cited numerous problems, saying dredging will stir up toxins buried in the riverbed that could harm aquatic life and shoreline habitat and degrade drinking water supplies.

Other issues include plans for disposal and storage of dredge material, which environmentalists say are not clearly delineated. Storing dredge material can result in a concentration of toxins that could be harmful to wildlife, and leaching from the site could harm habitat and water supplies, they say.

The groups also say if the corps is permitted to go ahead without state approvals, it threatens rivers everywhere in the nation.

“This is a complete abuse of power by the Army Corps that not only threatens the Delaware River but every river nationally. If they can break all regulations here in Delaware, they can do it anywhere,” said Jeff Tittel of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “There is no project in the country that is this devastating and this arrogant.”

In a press conference Thursday, Nov. 19, the environmental groups said they support actions filed by New Jersey and Delaware opposing the corps’ plan, but their action also asserts the plan violates federal law and will harm the watershed and its inhabitants.

“We are filing suit today to put the brakes on this rogue Army Corps deepening project, which threatens South Jersey and Philadelphia’s major drinking water source – the Delaware River – as well as the fish and oyster populations that provide recreational enjoyment and commercial employment in the region,” said Jane Nogaki of New Jersey Environmental Federation.

Edward Voight, spokesman for the corps, said the corps never comments on pending or ongoing litigation.