by Anita Wadhwani, Tennessee Lookout
November 21, 2024
Environmental groups are accusing a trio of federal agencies of illegally allowing CSX Transportation to dredge a pristine river gorge in East Tennessee for rocks and other materials to shore up rail lines damaged or washed away in catastrophic floods from Hurricane Helene.
Filed in federal court Monday, the lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Forest Service wrongly approved efforts by the publicly-traded railway company to mine the Nolichucky riverbed near the Tennessee and North Carolina border.
The dredging poses risks to the river, its aquatic life and the potential for downstream flooding in the future for communities that rely on the Nolichucky for outdoor recreation and the tourist dollars it brings in.
The federal approvals violated standard agency procedures and a host of federal environmental laws intended to protect river life, including the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, the lawsuit by American Riverkeepers and American Whitewater alleges. The groups are represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
“We have been pleading with the federal agencies to step in and put protections in place, but they have not acted so far,” Kevin Colburn, National Stewardship Director for American Whitewater said in a statement.
“CSX’s reckless mining tactics put the remarkable characteristics of the Nolichucky Gorge, and the river itself, at risk. We cannot sit by and simply watch that happen,” he said.
CSX, which is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said in a statement Wednesday it was recovering “track material” from the river, including “rail, ties, panels, bridge spans and other rail bed fill material” washed into the river.”
The statement did not directly address allegations the company was also removing river rock and sediment to use in reconstruction rail lines, as the lawsuit claims.
CSX said it would continue to work with federal agencies to “ensure rail infrastructure is recovered and restored in the safest and most environmentally responsible way.”
The Nolichucky River hit record levels in late September as the inland effects of Hurricane Helene swept through northeast Tennessee, leading to catastrophic flooding that destroyed homes and businesses, including a plastics factory in Erwin, Tenn. where six fleeing employees did not survive. It also destroyed cargo rail lines owned by CSX, including a rail bridge that spanned the gorge.
CSX initially began its river-dredging in the days after flood waters receded, without informing federal agencies, the suit claims.
The agencies quickly approved the venture anyway, despite more than a dozen complaints from environmental groups and local citizens.
“Those agencies refused to put those legally required protections in place,” the lawsuit said. “Because work continues unmitigated, causing irreparable impacts, the plaintiffs are left with no choice but to initiate litigation to preserve the gorge’s exceptional values.”
The gorge and its surrounding forests are home to rare animal and plant life – and serve as a popular destination for outdoors activities including rafting, fishing and hunting.
Outdoor recreational tourism, including a whitewater rafting industry based on the Nolichucky, generates $17 million annually for Tennessee’s Unicoi County.
The gorge also hosts rare and vulnerable plant and animal species including the endangered Appalachian Elktoe mussel and Eastern Hellbenders, the biggest salamanders in North America, according to the suit.
Federal agencies have not yet submitted a legal response to the lawsuit, filed in the Western District of North Carolina but provided statements to the Lookout Wednesday.
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District is actively working with CSXT, the U.S. Forest Service – Cherokee National Forest, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure the emergency repairs to the rail line are conducted in an environmentally sensitive manner,” a statement from the Corps said.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, which has jurisdiction over a portion of the river that flows through Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee and the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina, said it was working with its fellow federal agencies and CSX to “advise on minimizing any potential impacts to natural and recreation resources already heavily affected by Helene.”
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