Environmentalists Win Lawsuit
White River Current

U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson revoked a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit for development of a subdivision on an island in the White River. The Arkansas Nature Alliance filed the lawsuit in April 2002 to halt the project, contending the Corps of Engineers ignored its own regulations in granting the permit to build the subdivision on Landers Island, upstream from Mountain View. Plans for the Eagles Landing subdivision called for 49 lots. Wilson ruled in favor of the Arkansas Nature Alliance.

The nonprofit group’s lawsuit claimed the Corps ignored its own regulations in issuing the permit in 2001 by using a procedure that allowed it to bypass getting public comments, although the Corps had received several complaints before the project was approved.

The judge ordered the Corps to file quarterly reports of actions taken to comply with his ruling. He also ordered developers to provide to any person considering purchasing land on the island written notice of pending litigation and the potential of rapid flooding.

The suit contends the island was under 17 feet of water when it flooded in 1982. The suit also objected that a new bridge built by developers blocks passage down what had been a navigable channel of the river.

Wilson stayed his order that the bridge be returned to its original low-water dimensions pending an appeal, if one is filed.