Mississippi Coast cities, counties sue Army Corps over Bonnet Carré as new threat looms
Mississippi Coast localities and two associations have filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Mississippi River Commission to protect coastal waters from future damage caused by Mississippi River water pouring from the Bonnet Carré Spillway.
The lawsuit accuses the Corps and Mississippi River Commission of violating federal law by opening the spillway more frequently in recent years without considering the consequences to marine life or seeking less harmful alternatives to alleviate river flooding.
The lawsuit was filed this week in U.S. District Court in Gulfport by the cities of Biloxi, D’Iberville and Waveland, Hancock and Harrison counties, the Mississippi Hotel and Lodging Association and Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United Inc.
The Coast localities and associations are suing the Corps because it operates the spillway and opens it only after approval from the Mississippi River Commission president, who is also commander of the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division.
The lawsuit asks that a federal judge act on several fronts:
▪ Grant a temporary injunction that would require the Corps to notify and consult Coast governments about short-term actions that will be taken to minimize impacts from opening the spillway.
▪ Order the Corps and Mississippi River Commission to comply with federal law by studying the impacts of more frequent spillway openings and offering reasonable alternatives that would minimize damage.
▪ Award attorney’s fees and court costs to the Mississippi Coast governments and associations.
The Bonnet Carré is part of a Mississippi River and Tributaries Project conceived in 1928 to manage river flooding and navigation. But Corps and MRC have failed to account for the impacts in recent years of increased rainfall, flooding and unchecked agricultural pollution of the river, the lawsuit says.
The Corps’ water control manual envisions opening the Bonnet Carré only every seven to 10 years to avert river flooding of New Orleans.
The spillway had been opened 14 times since it was built in the 1930s to release Mississippi River water into Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi Sound beyond.
Five of those openings have happened since 2011. For the first time, the Corps opened the spillway twice in 2019 for an unprecedented total of 123 days. The National Weather Service is also forecasting an increased flood threat for spring 2020.
With increased rainfall from warming temperatures, the lawsuit says, the trend of frequent openings is likely to continue.
“As a result, absent development of mitigating strategies by the Corps and the Mississippi River Commission, the Bonnet Carré Spillway will continue to open on a basis that will cause ongoing damage to the public resources of coastal Mississippi,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also describes damage in 2019 from polluted river water and plummeting salinity levels: most oysters dead in the western Mississippi Sound, dolphin and sea turtle carcasses washing ashore, potentially toxic algae that closed beaches from shoreline to shoreline, and the disappearance of shrimp and fish.
The damage caused tourism-related industries millions of dollars and deprived local governments of tax revenue, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says the Corps can look at alternatives such as the timing of spillway flows, limited release of river water through other spillways and addressing upstream river pollution.
This story was originally published December 26, 2019 at 10:46 AM.
