NICAN calls end to bypass challenge

SANDPOINT — The North Idaho Community Action Network has decided not to appeal a federal court ruling upholding a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit for the U.S. Highway 95 bypass.

The nonprofit citizen group cited judicial delay, politics and irreparable harm already done to Sandpoint’s waterfront as the basis for its decision not embark on an appeal.

NICAN filed suit against the corps last year in a bid to nullify a discharge permit approved in 2007 for the controversial highway rerouting project. The group argued the permit to dredge and fill Sand Creek and adjacent wetlands violated the federal Clean Water Act.

In its permit challenge, NICAN moved for a temporary restraining order and asked U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in November to stay construction until the merits of NICAN’s legal claims were decided.

Lodge declined later that month to grant the restraining order, a ruling which NICAN was barred from challenging in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A decision on the stay, however, came four months after construction on the Sand Creek Byway started.

Liz Sedler, NICAN’s executive director, said the delay in receiving Lodge’s appealable ruling against the stay left the group in “legal limbo” as construction on the bypass gained momentum.

“This inaction on the district court’s part guaranteed that construction would start immediately, which it did, and the inevitable damage to Sand Creek and Sandpoint’s waterfront setting proceeded rapidly during the next four months,” Sedler said in a statement explaining NICAN’s decision not to appeal.

When the ruling came in late April, a significant portion of the filling and dredging in Sand Creek at issue in the lawsuit had already been completed, leading NICAN and its counsel to doubt any court would stop the project, even temporarily.

“Furthermore, due to the already extensive alteration of Sandpoint’s waterfront setting and the impacts to Sand Creek since construction began, there is no longer a possibility of obtaining meaningful relief from the court system,” Sedler’s statement said. “We’re done.”

Sedler called the decision to forgo an appeal difficult and said NICAN still maintains that the bypass will result in negative long-term consequences to the environment, local economy and the very character of Sandpoint.

“We tried to keep that from happening, but failed due to the powerful political forces behind it,” Sedler said in the statement.

The future of NICAN is unclear.

“Well, I don’t know yet,” Sedler said when asked on Friday if it was the end of the road for NICAN. “It depends on what there is to do that makes sense.”