US Army Corps of Engineers fights back over Bonnet Carré Spillway ruling

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is appealing a judge’s order that the agency consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service before opening the Bonnet Carré Spillway because of the threat of “imminent environmental harm” to Mississippi Sound fisheries.

The Corps filed its notice of appeal over the ruling of Judge Louis Guirola Jr. in a lawsuit filed against the agency by Harrison County, other Coast localities, Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United Inc. and the Mississippi Hotel and Lodging Association.

The Corps opens the spillway when the Mississippi River threatens to flood New Orleans and surrounding areas. River water flows from the spillway into Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi Sound. The spillway has opened repeatedly since 2008 because of increased flooding.

A record opening of 123 days in 2019 killed massive numbers of oysters, displaced fish and shrimp, caused lesions on dolphins and created toxic algae blooms that closed beachfront waters to swimming.

Guirola found the Corps had violated a federal law that protects “essential fish habitat” by failing to consult Marine Fisheries before opening the Bonnet Carré.

“Consultation in the future may well require the Corps to consider alternatives that would lessen this environmental harm and additional damages ,” Guirola wrote in his opinion.

In the lawsuit, the Corps argued that Harrison County and the other plaintiffs attributed injuries to the spillway’s opening, not the agency’s failure to consult marine fisheries. The agency also said other factors have been blamed for damaging fisheries, including hurricanes, the 2010 BP oil spill, negative media coverage and a perception that seafood is “tainted.”

The Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Justice Department, which is appealing the decision on the Corps’ behalf, has not responded to a request for comment on the appeal.

The Coast entities that filed the lawsuit were hoping the Corps would work with Marine Fisheries to find alternatives to Bonnet Carré openings.

“This is a way of life down here that is unraveling while we watch it,” Ryan Bradley, executive director of Commercial Fisheries United, said in a declaration filed as part of the lawsuit. “If we have more years of the Bonnet Carré Spillway affecting us the way it did in 2019, we will lose more fishermen, fishing families, and that we can never make up.”