A federal court in Washington, DC, has denied Weaver’s Cove Energy LLC’s plea to compel the U.S. Coast Guard to prepare and issue a preliminary investigation report, recommendation and decision on whether the old Brightman Street Bridge unreasonably obstructs navigation. The 100-year-old drawbridge, which connects Fall River to Somerset, MA, would prevent large tankers from transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the proposed Weaver’s Cove terminal site in Fall River.

The old Brightman Bridge was scheduled for demolition until politicians realized its importance in blocking the controversial Weaver’s Cove import terminal. Rear Admiral Timothy S. Sullivan, commander of the First Coast Guard District and one of three defendants named in the lawsuit, had ordered the bridge to be demolished within 270 days of completion of a new Brightman Bridge, which is under construction.

In 2005, however, Congress passed and President Bush enacted into law legislation that prohibits the spending of federal funds for the demolition of the old bridge and requires that the old bridge be maintained, thus posing an obstacle to Weaver’s Cove (see Daily GPI, Aug. 10, 2005).

After Weaver’s Cove filed its lawsuit in June, the Coast Guard determined that the law did not bar the use of federal funds for alterations to the bridge short of complete demolition, and it authorized a preliminary investigation of the bridge. But the preliminary investigation of the Brightman Bridge has been put on the back-burner while the Coast Guard wades through a backlog of 31 other bridges awaiting preliminary investigation.

“Plaintiff [Weaver’s Cove] petitions for a writ of mandamus compelling defendants to perform the duties allegedly owed to plaintiff by the Truman-Hobbs Act,” which authorizes the Coast Guard to order a bridge owner to alter any bridge that unreasonably obstructs navigation, said U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle for the District of Columbia.

“The writ of mandamus is a ‘drastic and extraordinary remedy reserved for really extraordinary causes’…It is available only if the plaintiff has a clear right to relief; the defendant has a clear duty to act; and there is no other adequate remedy available to the plaintiff,” which doesn’t appear to be the case here, she said in her Nov. 14 ruling.

“This court has no authority under the Mandamus Act to compel defendants to prepare and issue a preliminary investigation report, recommendation and decision. But even if it had such authority, this court would not be inclined to use its power to interfere with the Coast Guard’s prioritization process.”

The Coast Guard “commander has fulfilled his duty to make a determination as to whether a preliminary investigation is warranted…Defendants owe plaintiff no further nondiscretionary duty at this time. At this early stage of the administrative process, defendants have authorized but not yet begun a preliminary investigation. The commander’s duty to issue the results of the preliminary investigation is not triggered until after the preliminary investigation has been undertaken.” Nor is the commander under any time limit to initiate the preliminary investigation, Huvelle said.

The Weaver’s Cove LNG terminal project, which FERC approved in mid-2005, has been the target of intense opposition by local, state and federal officials. If built, it would provide 800 MMcf/d of peak sendout capacity, 400 MMcf/d of baseload supply and 200,000 metric tons of LNG storage. The project would take up 68 of 73 acres at a former petroleum import terminal on the Taunton River, which feeds into Mount Hope Bay and Narragansett Bay about 50 miles south of Boston. Mill River Pipeline LLC would build two short pipelines to the Algonquin Gas Transmission system from the terminal to carry 400,000 Dth/d on average (see Daily GPI, July 1, 2005).

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