The U.S. Supreme Court has eliminated a challenge to billions of dollars of Connecticut military and commercial shipping interests by clearing the way for a new disposal site in eastern Long Island Sound for potentially hazardous materials dredged from state harbors to maintain them for navigation.
The court’s decision not to hear yet another appeal from New York puts an end to decades of litigation between that state and Connecticut, principally over the disposal of dredged spoils from New London Harbor and the Thames River, which require periodic channel clearing to accommodate the submarines built at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics and berthed at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base in Groton.
At a time when the Navy is pouring record sums into new submarine construction programs, Connecticut is also spending hundreds of millions of dollars more to make New London Harbor, with its easy access to the North Atlantic, the supply depot for the offshore wind energy industry.
