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June 8, 2008

Judge in refuge lawsuit expected to rule soon

By Kelly Young

kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com

Nearly two years after its establishment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the fate of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge — currently just a one-acre tract of land — remains in limbo. Due to a lawsuit filed in January of 2007 by the city of Dallas and the Upper Neches River Municipal Water Authority, and the resulting standstill agreement which has blocked additional land from being donated to the refuge, FWS has been unable to develop the new refuge and prepare it for public use.

But Dr. Michael Banks, co-chair of the Friends of the Neches River and founder of Save Texas Parks, thinks that will soon change; he believes the lawsuit will be resolved in the coming weeks.

“It looks like the judge is going to be making a ruling in about a month, and all indications are that he will rule in favor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” Banks said. “Throughout the lawsuit, we’ve felt pretty confident that we are going to win, and apparently nothing has happened to change that.”

If the judge does rule in favor of the refuge and the federal government, Banks said Dallas would be able to appeal the decision, but he doesn’t believe they would do so.

“They can appeal, but I don’t think they will, and of course, we don’t want them to. They would just be wasting more of their money, their time and their energy,” he said. “ There are so many other resources and avenues that they can spend their time on. It just doesn’t seem likely that they would pursue something that is going to provide them with such a small amount of water.”

An estimated 6,700 acres of land intended for the refuge have already been purchased and now await the outcome of the lawsuit.

“It’s pretty common knowledge that land has already been purchased and is ready to be donated to the wildlife refuge, it’s just sitting there waiting for the lawsuit to be settled. I’ve been told that as soon as the judge rules, the land can start being transferred to U.S. Fish and Wildlife,” Banks said.

By establishing the refuge on the lands in question, the federal government trumped the state’s plan to build a water supply lake on the site. Once built, 80 percent of the resulting water rights to Fastrill Reservoir would belong to the city of Dallas.

Despite his confidence in the federal government’s case, Banks said the last year-and-a-half of following the lawsuit has been a nerve-wracking experience for him.

“We will be very glad to see this wind down and get a ruling. You never know what can happen in a court case, so it’s always scary taking something to court,” he said. “Sometimes a strong lawyer can make a case out of something that’s not there, so we are really ready for this all to be over.”

Banks said the worst part of the lawsuit is the time wasted that the refuge could have been available to Cherokee County residents.

“The thing that bothers me is, if we hadn’t had the lawsuit interfering with the development of the wildlife refuge, we would already have people out there enjoying it by now. I’ve had schools and churches contact me about wanting to make trips and do projects out there,” Banks said. “With gas prices getting so high, most people can’t afford to go to West Texas to see a state park, so it will be great to have something right here. It’s going to be a refuge, not a wildlife preserve, so we are going to be able to both enhance the wildlife habitat and utilize it.”

Federal Judge Jorge Solis began deliberations in the case back in March.

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