Residents for Sane Trash Solutions, Inc. v. United States Army Corps of Engineers

The federal district court for the Southern District of New York upheld the issuance by the United States Army Corps of Engineers of a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit for a solid waste marine transfer station on the East River on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Among the arguments rejected by the court was that New York City should have prepared a supplemental environmental impact statement to address both flooding after Superstorm Sandy and also the issuance of new advisory flood maps by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The court said the City’s actions, which included preparation of a technical memorandum after issuance of the FEMA maps and incorporation of additional floodproofing measures, satisfied “hard look” requirements under New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act. The court also rejected the claim that the Corps should have supplemented its own environmental review after Sandy.