The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has ruled in favor of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which has begun to dredge the 102-mile channel but whose work was threatened by a lawsuit from the State of New Jersey and five environmental groups which sought to block the project on the grounds that it would cause ecological and economic harm to wildlife and wetlands. The plaintiffs argued that the Army Corps had failed to do a thorough environmental assessment of the project as required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and had violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). But the court upheld earlier rulings by district courts in Delaware and New Jersey that the Army Corps had not violated its duty under the federal laws.