Corps, Opponents of Dam Agree on Suit Dismissal
April 2003

Conservation groups and the Army Corps of Engineers agreed there were no significant issues to be decided in a lawsuit challenging a dam on Bear Creek - a major tributary of the Buffalo National River - once the Army Corps revoked a permit for the structure, so the suit has been dismissed.

U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson Jr. signed an order Wednesday dismissing the suit at the request of plaintiffs and the defendants - the Army Corps and two Corps officials.

The two sides signed a stipulation March 20 agreeing that, because "the permit is null and void ... all remaining claims in this case should be dismissed."

The plaintiffs reserved the right to seek attorneys' fees, and the Corps reserved the right to challenge such an effort.

Local water district officials in Searcy County asked to build the dam on Bear Creek, saying the project would provide a stable source of water for the 8,000 people who live in the county.

After the Corps office at Little Rock rejected the permit request from the Searcy County Regional Water District, the agency's Dallas office granted the permit in 2001 after Gov. Mike Huckabee stepped in to support the plan.

The suit was filed last year after the Corps issued the permit for the dam. The suit claimed that the Corps granted the permit prematurely because the Interior Department hadn't yet determined what the environmental effects of the projects would be.

Plaintiffs were the Ozark Society, the Arkansas Canoe Club, the Sierra Club, the National Parks Conservation Association, American Rivers, Save Our Streams, the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, the Federation of Fly Fishers, and the Arkansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.

But in a Dec. 9 decision, the Corps' regional office at Dallas reversed itself and revoked the permit.