Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet lawsuit can go on, judge says - NOLA.com

Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet lawsuit can go on, judge says - NOLA.com

The lawsuit stems from the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which provides "private property (shall not) be taken for public purpose, without just compensation."

Braden said evidence of severe flooding in 2005 and other flooding since then showed the plaintiffs are entitled to ask the court for compensation.

But she also delayed bringing the case to trial until U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval issues a ruling -- expected in early September -- on a separate lawsuit charging that construction of the MR-GO was partly responsible for flood damage caused in both areas during Katrina.

Braden hinted the delay may be to determine whether that ruling will compensate the plaintiffs in her case for the damages caused by the MR-GO. Possible damages may also be reduced by federal grants given to Katrina victims, she said.

Braden threw cold water on the federal attorneys' argument that parish leaders, residents and businessmen knew or should have known the MR-GO had heightened flooding potential long before the six-year statute of limitations for filing such suits.

She said the landowners couldn't predict the flooding effects because those effects continued to change as wetlands eroded.

"In this case, the record evidences that the north bank of the MR-GO was not 'stabilized' in 1998, " the time limit federal attorneys argued for, the decision said.

The government's own evidence showed "that between 1968 and 2006, the surface width of the MR-GO increased up to 15 feet each year."

And it wasn't until the November 2004 Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study, which asked Congress for a major federal grant to rebuild wetlands along the channel, that the corps "acknowledged the urgency of the situation, " she said.

Braden said the corps also failed in 1957 to comply with a federal law requiring approval of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service before building the project, or to respond when objections were raised repeatedly by other critics, including the St. Bernard Parish government, who had for years demanded the MR-GO be clo......

more...