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Friday, August 03, 2007
Ind. Decisions - Federal Judge McKinney denies injunction in nerve agent shipping case [Updated]
Updating these ILB entries from July 16th and July 19th, re the hearing by U.S. District Judge Larry McKinney in Indianapolis, where, to quote the July 16th AP story:
On May 8, the Sierra Club, the Chemical Weapons Working Group and other groups sued the Army, seeking a preliminary injunction to halt the shipments of the hydrolysate that's being produced by a VX destruction project at the Newport Chemical Depot.Judge McKinney this afternoon has denied the plaintiffs' motion to grant the preliminary injunction. The decision concludes:
The Court concludes on the record before it that Plaintiffs have failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims that Defendants’ shipment of CVXH from Newport, Indiana, to Port Arthur, Texas, and subsequent incineration of CVXH at Veolia violates NEPA, RCRA, the DAA, or Indiana and Texas RCRA-based statutes. Because the Court concludes that Plaintiffs cannot make the requisite showing on this factor, the Court need not discuss the other factors for a preliminary injunction because a party must satisfy all three threshold requirements before a Court will balance the interests of the parties and weigh the impact on public interest. See Cooper, 196 F.3d at 813. For this reason, Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction must be DENIED.The ILB has posted the 57-page ruling in the case of The Sierra Club, et al v. Sec. of Defense, et al, here.
[Updated 8/4/07] Here is AP coverage of federal Judge McKinney's action, by Charles Wilson. Some quotes:
A federal judge on Friday denied environmentalists' request that he block truck shipments of nerve agent waste from western Indiana's Newport Chemical Depot to an incinerator in Texas.Environmental groups failed to make their case that the Army did not fully consider the risks involved in moving the neutralized VX nerve agent waste across some 900 miles of highways in the nation's midsection, U.S. District Judge Larry McKinney wrote in the 57-page ruling.
He also ruled the Army had considered the scientific evidence before concluding that the deadly VX would not reform in the waste called hydrolysate that is the byproduct of the neutralization process.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 3, 2007 04:55 PM
Posted to Ind Fed D.Ct. Decisions