The Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, agrees with Schulz and invalidates the 1977 referendum. County officials use the money for environmental impact studies and engineering drawings for the project.
Officials scale back the scope of the plan to suit the available funds.
State Supreme Court Justice Lawrence E. Kahn finds in favor of Schulz, but county lawyers say the ruling is unclear and pertains only to Queensbury, not to the remainder of the county project. Schulz refiles his suit, claiming environmental impact statements in the towns of Hague, Bolton, Lake George and Queensbury were all done incorrectly. A single environmental assessment should be done for all of the project's portions, he argues.