Yadkin Riverkeeper

The Supreme Court has ruled, the fat lady has sung, in the PPL Montana vs. the State of Montana case. The Supreme Court overturned lower court rulings that the “Great Falls” section of the river, and possibly other disputed sections, were navigable, and therefore that the riverbed was owned by the state. A key point of the decision was that navigability must be determined on a section by section basis, not on rivers in their entirety.

The decision laid out some legal principles which could have repercussions in North Carolina. Basically, it enumerated three distinct issues:

Last week the US Supreme Court heard arguments from Montana and PPL, a hydroelectric power producer regarding who owns the riverbeds on three Montana Rivers. According to US law, if a river is "navigable" it is owned by the State and should be held in Trust for the people of the State. If the river is not navigable, then it is owned by the federal government for the people of the United States. The case began as parents of school children in Montana got tired of budget cuts to schools, and noted that the State had not been charging millions in riverbed rent for several rivers over the past several decades. They sued the state claiming the State had not been managing its public trust responsibly because it had not been charging rent for the use of the public land.

The opinion piece below was published in the Charlotte Observer on Nov. 5, 2009. I am republishing this piece on behalf of Dean Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper (www.yadkinriverkeeper.org).

The Yadkin Riverkeeper is one of the many environmental groups in opposition to Alcoa receiving a new 50-year license from the federal government for North Carolina's Yadkin Hydroelectric Project located in central North Carolina. Our group (MMI public relations) represents the Stanly County Board of Commissioners who also oppose Alcoa's 50-year federal request. Support for this opposition has grown to include Governor Perdue, Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco, Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan, as well as number of other nonprofit groups and elected officials.

Alcoa's environmental record part of Yadkin River debate
It wants to keep harvesting profits while denying pollution.

From Dean Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper: