A federal judge awarded Friends of the River nearly half-a-million dollars in attorneys’ fees Friday after the conservation group prevailed in a Freedom of Information Act dispute that had dragged on for nine years. The award — $491,676 in attorneys’ fees and $2,548 in costs — was less than what the organization asked for but nearly twice what the Army Corps of Engineers had proposed paying. The Corps was on the hook for at least some of the litigation costs after losing a FOIA lawsuit related to endangered species and dams on California’s Yuba River.