The Sierra Club filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for permitting the ongoing construction of the 428-mile Permian Highway fracked gas pipeline, despite a federal court order vacating the nationwide permit on which the pipeline’s 449 water crossings are based, and for not performing the environmental review required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The Permian Highway Pipeline would carry fracked gas across Texas from the Permian Basin, through the Texas Hill Country, to an end point in Colorado County. The Army Corps issued an approval for the pipeline using a fast-tracked process called Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12). This nationwide permit was vacated by a federal judge earlier this month, leaving the pipeline without valid verifications for dredge and fill activities. The Sierra Club’s lawsuit, filed today in the U.S. District Court Western District of Texas, argues that the Army Corps is violating the law by allowing the construction in rivers and streams to continue. In addition to the vacatur of NWP12, the suit argues that the Corps also failed to comply with NEPA when it approved the project.
Read the full press release from The Sierra Club here.
Sierra Club lawsuit challenges construction of Permian Highway fracked gas pipeline
