Gulfport, Miss.—Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, in his official capacity as trustee of the Public Trust Lands, filed suit today against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi River Commission on behalf of the citizens on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and all people in Mississippi, alleging an illegal release of water into the Mississippi Sound from the repeated opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway.
The lawsuit specifically addresses the request for a temporary injunction to order the Corps to operate the Bonnet Carré Spillway in conjunction with the Morganza Spillway and to mitigate damage to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
The lawsuit further alleges such action was taken without the benefit of an up-to-date Environmental Impact Statement, giving no consideration of the environmental impact to the Mississippi Sound and Mississippi’s Public Trust Tidelands. As part of the relief sought, the State has asked the court to compel the defendants to perform a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement as well as to utilize the Morganza Spillway to mitigate the freshwater inundation of the Mississippi Sound in the future.
