A new military development project could endanger the water supply for historically Black communities near the Turkey Creek watershed in Gulfport, Miss., residents are warning.
Opponents of the proposal appeared at the Mississippi Court of Appeals in Jackson on Nov. 1 to challenge the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s 2019 approval of a permit for a planned Port of Gulfport military storage facility.
Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi and the Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization of Gulfport argued that while residents were aware of the new development, the MDEQ did not inform them about what could be stored at the defense facility and how that storage may affect water quality in the area.
“The permit board never told the neighborhood that explosive ammunition may be stored at this military project,” Earthjustice attorney Rodrigo Cantu argued to the court. “The law requires that they know this and that their voices be heard. The permit board has failed to comply with its legal obligations regarding this water-quality certification.”
But the three appeals court judges who heard the arguments expressed uncertainty about whether MDEQ officials had any indication that explosive materials, ammunition or other weapons of war would be stored at the facility at all.
“Is it anywhere in our record a final statement that explosives would be stored at this facility?” Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge David Neil McCarty asked Cantu. “All of this stuff about explosives seems very hypothetical.”
Cantu rebutted that “it was arbitrary and capricious” for the permit board to review a military project and not at least ask whether it would store anything that might affect the environment before approving a permit.
Activists argue that MDEQ’s approval of the State Port Authority at Gulfport’s permit violates Section 401 of the U.S. Clean Water Act, which states that “a federal agency may not issue a permit or license to conduct any activity that may result in any discharge into waters of the United States unless a Section 401 water-quality certification is issued, or certification is waived.”
The Port Authority at Gulfport’s proposed military