Opinion ID: 2003432
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Original Kane County Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint

Text: As with count II of the intervening plaintiff's amended complaint, the appellate court also did not reach the merits of the original plaintiffs' amended complaint in affirming the injunction. Therein, the Village of Bartlett, the City of Elgin, a group known as the Citizens Against the Balefill and William McHugh, an Evanston resident, filed a five-count complaint alleging that until such time as SWANCC is successful in reversing the Army Corps of Engineers' decision not to issue a section 404 permit, SWANCC may not engage in any preliminary construction activity such as the felling of trees or the drilling of monitoring wells. Notwithstanding some overlap in the allegations contained within the five counts, they basically break down as follows: count I: that pre-section 404 permit preliminary construction has no valid public purpose and constitutes an impermissible ultra vires act; count II: that pre-section 404 permit preliminary construction is an impermissible attempt to circumvent the Clean Water Act; count III: that pre-section 404 permit preliminary construction is an impermissible unlawful expenditure of public funds; count IV: that pre-section 404 permit preliminary construction is an impermissible nuisance; and count V: that pre-section 404 permit preliminary construction impermissibly violates SWANCC's fiduciary duty to hold the balefill site in trust for the benefit of the public.