The Mississippi Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a decision to permit a proposed military site in North Gulfport, despite local and environmental advocates’ concerns that the site could contaminate public waters.
In 2019, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Permit Board approved the proposal from the Mississippi State Port Authority. The Port Authority is seeking to build a storage facility for the U.S. Department of Defense to serve as a link between Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg and the state’s ports.
The decision this week follows a 2022 ruling in the Harrison County Chancery Court that reached the same conclusion. The appellants in the case included North Gulfport residents John Johnson, Glenn Cobb and Lattie Grubbs, the Anointed Temple AOH Church, as well as two local organizations: EEECHO Inc. and the North Gulfport Community Land Conservancy, Inc.
The appellants, represented by ACLU-MS and Earthjustice, argued that the MDEQ Permit Board failed to consider whether the proposed site would store explosive ammunition. Attorneys working with the appellants say they discovered this possibility through a “Port Planning Order” they obtained from a records request only after the Permit Board approved the site.
Residents are also concerned because the project, which would require filling three acres of wetlands, would be located on the former home of a fertilizer company that operated in the early 1900s. In 2009, the state ordered a remediation plan for the property after finding illegal levels of arsenic and lead. As part of the plan, the contaminated area has been capped off with a 10-inch layer of clay and a 4-inch layer of topsoil.
Explaining the court’s ruling, Judge Jim Greenlee wrote that the project’s proposal only said that ammunition might be stored at the site, not that it was a necessary part of the project. Thus, the ruling argues, the Permit Board didn’t have to consider the impact of storing ammunition in order to issue a water quality certification.
The appellants also argued that the Permit Board should have redone its public notice process to inform residents that the site may store ammunition. But, Greenlee wrote, “The joint public notice was complied with the applicable regulations, and it was not deficient simply because it did not mention the single reference to explosive ammunition in the (Port Planning Order).”
In her dissent, Judge Deborah McDonald countered that very point.
“The strategic port criteria state that the port should preferably be able to receive and store up to 188 tons of explosive ammunition…” McDonald wrote. “Further, I believe the possibility of storing such highly explosive ammunition near such a site to be a ‘pertinent issue’ of which the nearby community should have been informed in the public notice…”
Attorneys for the appellants released a statement on Thursday disagreeing with the ruling.
“We are extremely disappointed with the court’s decision,” Earthjustice attorney Rodrigo Cantú said. “This allows the Permit Board to endanger the health and safety of a historically black community by ignoring the possibility of storing explosive ammunition in a residential area.”
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