East Texas

By BETTY WATERS
Staff Writer

Oral arguments are scheduled at midmorning Tuesday before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in an appeal of a district court ruling blocking development of the Lake Fastrill Reservoir overlapping the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge.

The appeals court is not expected to issue an opinion in the case until a few months after the arguments.

The city of Dallas and the Texas Water Development Board propose developing the reservoir about halfway between Palestine and Rusk on the Neches River in Anderson and Cherokee counties to supply water needs for Dallas and numerous other cities.

Approximately 80 percent of the water would belong to the city of Dallas and the other 20 percent to the Upper Neches River Municipal Water Authority to sell to nearby communities.

The reservoir has been on various water plans, both state and regional, since 1961. But in the summer of 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved creation of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge in a 25,281-acre site in Anderson and Cherokee counties designated for the reservoir.

Litigation began soon afterward. The city of Dallas and the Texas Water Development Board filed consolidated lawsuits in January 2007 seeking to reverse the decision to establish the refuge. The suits allege procedural flaws and statutory violations by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

In July 2008, Judge Jorge A. Solis denied the city's and board's motions in their lawsuits in the Dallas division, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Opponents of the reservoir hailed his ruling as a strong decision in favor of the Fish and Wildlife Service's move to create the refuge.

Shortly after his ruling, the city of Dallas and the Water Development Board sought an injunction to stop transfer of land into the refuge, which currently consists of one acre, until they had an opportunity to file an appeal. Later, both entities filed an appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of the district court ruling.

Oral arguments are expected Tuesday by attorneys representing the appellants, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Texas attorney general's office representing the Texas Water Development Board.