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Feds put big Benson project on hold, suspend permit allowing construction
The federal government has once again put the skids on a planned 28,000-home development in Benson, by suspending its Clean Water Act permit and rescinding a determination its construction wouldn’t harm imperiled species.
The actions by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put the long-planned Villages at Vigneto project on indefinite hold.
While the decisions don’t say this specifically, they do raise the possibility that more detailed analysis will be required of its environmental impacts — a major bone of contention among all sides of debate over the project for years.
The agencies’ actions represent a 180-degree reversal toward the project by the Biden administration, compared to actions of the Trump administration that had moved it along.
“I think this is a key victory for the San Pedro River, one of the last free flowing rivers in the desert Southwest,” said Stu Gillespie, an attorney representing six environmental groups who have been challenging the Corps permit in court. “The agency has suspended a crucial permit for the Villages of Vigneto that would have drained the aquifer that supports the river. It’s also a victory for the science, facts and the law.
The actions by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put the long-planned Villages at Vigneto project on indefinite hold.
While the decisions don’t say this specifically, they do raise the possibility that more detailed analysis will be required of its environmental impacts — a major bone of contention among all sides of debate over the project for years.
The agencies’ actions represent a 180-degree reversal toward the project by the Biden administration, compared to actions of the Trump administration that had moved it along.
“I think this is a key victory for the San Pedro River, one of the last free flowing rivers in the desert Southwest,” said Stu Gillespie, an attorney representing six environmental groups who have been challenging the Corps permit in court. “The agency has suspended a crucial permit for the Villages of Vigneto that would have drained the aquifer that supports the river. It’s also a victory for the science, facts and the law.
https://tucson.com/news/local/feds-put-big-benson-project-on-hold-suspend-permit-allowing-construction/article_0053662e-df87-11eb-8c49-e7c2713ba8ae.html
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