EPHRATA - Grant County PUD filed a motion to have a court case about residential use on Crescent Bar Island removed from U.S. District Court.

The motion is connected to a lawsuit filed against the PUD in January by about 400 island leaseholders.

The group sued the PUD because a lease allowing them to live on the publicly-owned island was not continued.

The lease expires in 2012.

In the motion, the PUD claims there is a lack of subject matter jurisdiction, according to documents in U.S. District Court filed Friday. 

Under the federal power act, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the deciding agency in matters concerning project lands, court documents state. 

Crescent Bar Island is located within the boundaries of the PUD's Priest Rapids Project, which is licensed by FERC.

A related matter is already before FERC.

The two homeowners' associations representing Crescent Bar leaseholders, the Crescent Bar Recreational Vehicle Homeowners Association and Crescent Bar Condominium Master Association, filed a motion to intervene with FERC concerning Grant PUD's shoreline management plan governing project lands.

The plan detailing non-project use of project lands was approved by PUD commissioners in 2010 and submitted to FERC.

The next step in the case would be the court's response, said Dorothy Harris, a public affairs officer with Grant PUD.

In the meantime, decisions about the district's shoreline management plan and homeowners' motion to intervene rest with FERC, she said.

This includes the commission decision that Crescent Bar would be a public recreation amenity, she said.

Commissioners decided last year not to renew the islanders' lease and instead to make recreational improvements to the area.

"Everything that has to do with the future of Crescent Bar Island is depending on FERC's approval," she commented. 

It is the PUD's hope it hears from the court and FERC, so others who are general interested parties in the county, or those outside the county, have a clear sense of where these resolutions lie, she explained.