ELR Citation: 41 ELR 20206
No(s). 10-3488 (7th Cir. Jun 14, 2011)

The Seventh Circuit held that an environmental group has standing to challenge a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit allowing 18.4 acres of wetlands in a state park to be destroyed to make way for a landfill. A lower court held that the group lacked standing and therefore dismissed the case. It thought that to establish standing the affiants had to attest that they would be so upset by the diminution in their bird- and wildlife-watching activities that they would no longer visit the state park. That is wrong; it is enough to confer standing that their pleasure is diminished even if not to the point that they abandon the site. In addition, if the group can prevent the wetlands' destruction by knocking out the Corps permit, there will be no landfill. Accordingly, a judgment in the groups' favor would eliminate a probable injury from the landfill. No more is necessary to establish standing.