Road Expansion Project Though Mississippi Watershed Can Proceed

The US Department of Transportation adequately reviewed a road expansion project through a protected watershed outside of Gulfport, Miss., before subsidizing the development, a federal judge ruled.

The agency considered indirect impacts in the environmental assessment for the $20 million grant, such as a growing urban sprawl in the Turkey Creek watershed, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi said Tuesday.

Judge Halil S. Ozerden cited the US Supreme Court’s decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coal. v. Eagle County, which limited courts’ discretion to review the scope of ...