Courtney Hails Supreme Court Decision to End Legal Challenge to Eastern Dredging Site

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02) today welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to deny a request to hear appeal in the long-running lawsuit by the State of New York to challenge the establishment of the Eastern Long Island Sound dredged material disposal site (ELDS). 

“This is the outcome we’ve been waiting for to protect southeastern Connecticut’s maritime economy and the Long Island Sound region,” Rep. Joe Courtney said. “The eastern Long Island Sound site was designated after painstaking work by federal, state, and local stakeholders to come up with sensible ways to safely manage dredged materials in the Long Island Sound. The prolonged legal fight over this issue has only created uncertainty for our ports, harbors, marinas, and our region’s submarine industrial base. Even worse, it has undermined the collaborative approach to managing the Long Island Sound that led to the ELDS’s designation in the first place. With this litigation now clearly and resoundingly settled, it is time to finally move forward and get working on the intent and promise of the ELDS.”

In September 2022, the US Court of Appeals Second Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision to reject New York’s attempt to reverse the establishment of the ELDS. In February 2023, New York filed a filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. Today, the Supreme Court denied the petition.

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