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YELLOWSTONE RIVER Suit demands Corps obey law on river permits By JOE KOLMAN Gazette Bozeman Bureau BOZEMAN - Six environmental groups filed a lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers charging that the agency is destroying the Yellowstone River by continuing to allow bank stabilization measures without studying the cumulative effects of such projects. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Billings, alleges that the federal agency has violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act. The groups want the Corps barred from issuing permits for projects such as rip-rap, dikes, barbs and levees until a study is completed on how those projects affect the river, its fisheries and surrounding wildlife habitat. "These laws instruct the Corps to look before it leaps, to understand if it is damaging the Yellowstone River before issuing these permits," said Jim Angell, attorney for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, which represents the groups. "But the Corps is ignoring these requirements and gambling with a resource that belongs to all Montanans and all Americans." Yellowstone stabilization projects have been a growing controversy, beginning with record flooding in 1996 and 1997 on the river where it flows through Park County. Much criticism has been leveled at the Corps of Engineers by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmental groups, one of which recently named the Yellowstone one of the country's most endangered rivers. The Corps has not responded to the charges. Paul Johnston, a spokesman for the Corps in Omaha, Neb., did not call back with a comment Thursday. However, in prior interviews about criticism of the Corps, Johnston has said that a moratorium on stabilization permits is unlikely and said that denials of permits are rare. But he added that the Corps works closely with state and federal agencies and many modifications are made to permits - sometimes so many that the applicant withdraws. But the environmental groups contend that the number of permits has increased dramatically. Between 1975 and 1995, the Corps issued 38 permits for projects along the Yellowstone in Park County. Over the next three years, permits were approved for 82 projects. One of the reasons for the increase, the groups contend, is that as property values along the river have risen, landowners have become less tolerant of the river's natural movement and flooding. That has had a disastrous domino effect, according to the lawsuit. Rip rap deflects the river flow away from the banks, increasing the speed of the water and therefore increasing the amount of bank erosion downstream. That erosion prompts downstream property owners to stabilize their banks. Government biologists and others have said that this armoring of the banks decreases habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife. Both the state and federal governments have allocated money to study the effects of stabilization projects on the upper Yellowstone between Gardiner and Springdale, but the environmental groups contend that the entire 670-mile stretch of the longest free-flowing river in the lower 48 states needs to be studied. In asking for the injunction, the groups said that if the Corps is allowed to continue approving projects, there may be irreparable harm done to the river and nearby habitat. But the groups concede that flood control projects needed to prevent imminent human injury or severe damage to existing structures should be permitted. Groups participating in the lawsuit are: Montana Council of Trout Unlimited, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Sierra Club, Park County Environmental Council, Yellowstone Audubon Society and Montana River Action Network.
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