National Wildlife Refuge Association v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The federal district court for the District of Columbia granted a motion by the developer of a heavy mineral-sands mine in Georgia to transfer a case challenging jurisdictional determinations for the project to the Southern District of Georgia. The court found that venue was proper in the Southern District of Georgia and that the interests of convenience and justice supported transfer. The court found that the challenge to the mine was “an intensely local controversy” and that the localized interests were “preeminent.”

Four conservation groups challenged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ reinstatement of approved jurisdictional determinations for 550 acres of wetlands “at the doorstep of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.” The wetlands were previously determined to be jurisdictional “waters of the United States.” The plaintiffs alleged that the owner intended to strip-mine heavy mineral sands from the wetlands, which the plaintiffs alleged were “critical to the hydrology and ecology of the Okefenokee Swamp.” The complaint described the swamp as “one of the largest intact freshwater ecosystems in North America” and alleged that it was “a critical link in important wildlife corridors,” economically important to local residents, significant to the regional’s Native American history, and “important from a climate perspective, holding the largest remaining undisturbed peat deposit on the North American Coastal Plain,” which “stores the equivalent of over 95 million tons of carbon dioxide.”