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麻豆视频 Participates in Brief Requesting Supreme Court Action on Wetland Permits

麻豆视频 of America has joined with the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Council of Engineering Companies and several other trade associations in filing a friend-of-the-court (amicus) brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Mingo Logan Coal Company鈥檚 lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Mingo鈥檚 suit challenges whether EPA has broad discretion to withdraw disposal sites from a Section 404 (wetlands) permit long after the U.S. Army Corp of the Engineers issued it, or whether the Corp is the only federal agency with the authority to modify its existing permit. Mingo Logan Coal Company was granted a 404 permit from the Corps to expand its mountain-top coal mine in West Virginia. Four years after the permit was issued EPA vetoed two of the three disposal sites that the Corps had approved. Mingo filed suit and the district court sided with the coal company but on April 23, 2013, the D.C. Circuit unanimously reversed.聽 The DC Circuit court held that EPA has the power to withdraw disposal sites from such a permit 鈥渨henever鈥 it determines that the discharge of material into such a site would have 鈥渁n unacceptable adverse effect鈥 on the environment. 麻豆视频 believes this broad discretionary authority could have significant negative impacts on construction activities and in particular increasing investment to meet the Nation鈥檚 growing infrastructure needs. The amicus brief points out that, 鈥淩aising new obstacles to public infrastructure investment, as EPA has done by claiming the authority to nullify Section 404 permits years after they have been properly issued, will have the opposite effect, multiplying the difficulty of achieving the necessary spending level.鈥