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NORTHEAST
- Delaware - Delaware River Deepening Dumped Again
 The Delaware Nature Society, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and other local and national groups are preventing the Corps from deepening over 100 miles of the Delaware River from 40 to 45 feet. The project would cause toxic dredge spoils; irreparable harm to fish and wildlife, and a 2002 GAO report that states that the Corps’ economic findings were "based on miscalculations, invalid assumptions, and outdated information.” In Oct. and Nov. of 2009, both the States of New Jersey and Delaware, and local and national environmental organizations sued the Corps of Engineers to stop them from begining construction.
- New York - Montauk Point Lighthouse Revetment Repair
This Corps proposal to repair (for the 6th time since 1946) the existing rock wall (revetment) in front of the Montauk Point Lighthouse would waste $7 million of federal money while preventing the natural erosion that supplies sand to all of Long Island’s ocean beaches. Relocating the structure further from the ocean shore would save money in the long run and be a lasting solution.
SOUTH
- Alabama - Defeating the Duck River Dam...Again
 Alabama Rivers Alliance (ARA) sued the Corps on Sept. 5, 2007 to stop the construction of a dam on Alabama's Duck River. The Corps-issued section 404 permit that ARA is challenging is a re-issuance of a flawed 2000 corps-issued permit that a federal district judge vacated based on the proposed dam's cumulative impacts on water quality and downstream flows.
- Arkansas - Grand Prairie Irrigation Demonstration Project
At $420 million, this Corps of Engineers irrigation “demonstration” project would draw water from the White River, lowering water levels and damaging the White River and Cache River National Wildlife Refuges, providing irrigation to a small number of heavily subsidized rice farmers at a taxpayer cost of over $480,000 per farm. Irrigation has never before been a primary purpose of Corps of Engineers projects.
- Georgia - Savannah Harbor Expansion Project
The Corps is proposing to deepen a 16-mile section of the shipping channel in the Savannah Harbor from its current 42 foot depth down to 48 feet. This project was estimated to cost $230 million a decade ago, and would reduce by 50 percent the remaining tidal freshwater marsh in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge System, lower dissolved oxygen levels, and jeopardize the population of federally endangered shortnose sturgeon. A lawsuit has been brought against this project.
- For more information, please contact Chris DeScherer with the Southern Environmental Law Center
 Louisiana - Why Spend $1.3 Billion to Expand the Industrial Canal Lock When Traffic is Declining?
With a price tag of $1.3 billion this project would be the nation's most expensive single new navigation lock. Long-term declining traffic through the lock makes this project un-necessary and economically irresponsible. Federal dollars directed towards restoring the collapsing wetlands of Coastal Louisiana, would benefit the people of New Orleans much more. This project received no funding in the F.Y. 2010 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill.
- Comments from 28 Organizations on Final SEIS Opposing Lock Expansion (May 4, 2009)
- Comments from 24 National and Local Community, Faith, Civic and Environmental Groups on Corps SEIS Opposing the Lock Expansion (Jan. 26, 2009)
- "Price for new lock swells to $1.3 billion, corps says" The Times-Picayune, October 16, 2008
- Corps Releases Draft SEIS, October 2008. Comments due on Nov. 24, 2008.
- Report: Failure to Hold Water -
Economics of the New Lock Project for the Industrial Canal, New Orleans, Dec. 2007
- WWLTV New Orleans Channel 4, "Spending millions for a deep draft lock cannot be justified, Dec. 2007.
- "New study rejects canal lock plans," The Times-Picayune, Dec. 5, 2007
- Contact Sierra Club's Darryl Maley-Wiley or CAWIC's John Koeferl to get involved.
 Mississippi - Saving 200,000 Acres of Wetands!
The Yazoo Pumps project would damage up to an astonishing 200,000 acres of wetlands by using massive hydraulic pumps to transfer 6 million gallons of water per minute from the Mississippi Delta into the Yazoo River. On August 31, 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized a Clean Water Act Sect. 404 Veto of this project to halt this project for good.
- EPA's Final Determination to veto the project, August 30, 2008.
- American River's Yazoo Advocacy website has fact sheets, the corps EIS, a scientist letter, editorials, an independent economic analysis, and other materials.
- Corps Reform Network Sign On Letter in support of EPA's veto, which was submitted as an official public comment on May 5, 2008.
- Comments by a Coalition of Organizations supporting EPA's veto of the Yazoo Pumps project submitted to EPA on May 5.
- Jackson Free Press News Article from April 23, 2008 reporting on EPA's April 17th Public Hearing in Vicksburg MS, where hundreds showed up in support of EPA's Veto to 'Dump the Pumps.'
- Missouri - Court Orders Corps to Halt Construction of St. Johns/New Madrid Project
This project would permanently disconnect the middle Mississippi River from one of its last remaining natural floodplains, while offering benefits to only a handful of wealthy farmers. The project threatens increased flood risk for nearby Illinois and Kentucky communities by promoting expanded development of subsidized crop production in backwater lands. A Sept. 14, 2007 court decision barred construction of this project.
- Oklahoma - Arkansas River Channel Deepening
Corps plans to convert 445 miles of the Arkansas River from a 9 foot to a 12 foot river channel so that Tulsa, OK can operate as an expanded seaport is a waste of taxpayer money, providing meager long term benefits with a large upfront cost and damage to fish and wildlife habitat.
MIDWEST
- Michigan - Say NO to Third Commercial Lock at Sault Ste. Marie
The Corps is proposing to construct a third commercial lock in the Soo Lock system, where four parallel locks are already operating on the American side of Sault Ste. Marie. The lock system already allows commercial ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. This project would cost taxpayers $475 million dollars and would be constructed where two already functioning-locks already exist. This is the textbook definition of an unjustified project.
- North Dakota Red River Diversion Canal
The Army Corps of Engineers' flood control plan proposes a $1.46 billion dollar, 36-mile diversion canal that would severely jeopardize fish habitat and destroy hundreds of acres of wetlands. Investing in wetland restoration and upstream water storage provides a better flood solution.
- Upper Mississippi and Illinois River Lock Expansions
At a cost of over $2 billion, this navigation lock expansion project on the Upper Mississippi River was discredited in 2001 when the Corps was caught manipulating economic models. A recent Corps’ economic study found only 20 cents of benefits for each taxpayer dollar that would be spent based on existing traffic trends. This project would further impact numerous species of fish and mussels and degrade the Mississippi Flyway and 275,000 acres of the National Wildlife Refuge system. Dollars instead should be directed at restoring the river’s declining ecosystem.
WEST
- Idaho, Oregon and Washington -
Breaching 4 Lower Snake River Dams
 The Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition is working to get the Corps to breach 4 dams on the lower Snake River in Washington State. The Corps manages these dams for power generation and barge traffic at the expense of threatened native salmon, only 1% of which can reach their native spawning grounds to reproduce. The coalition sued the Corps and National Marine Fisheries Service (among others) on June 17, 2008, charging that the NMFS did not use the best available science in its salmon recovery plan.
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