Jurisich Oysters, LLC v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

A lawsuit filed in federal district court in Louisiana challenged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorization of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project, “the single largest ecosystem restoration project in the history of the United States.” The plaintiffs—who described themselves as “a coalition of conservationists, commercial and recreational fishermen, and local residents”—alleged that the project would “divert immense volumes of sediment and freshwater from the Mississippi River to the Barataria Basin in southern Louisiana in an attempt to restore deltaic processes, rebuild freshwater wetlands, and support coastal resiliency to climate change and sea level rise” but that the project would have “serious, permanent, adverse impacts,” including impacts on water quality, bottlenose dolphin populations, commercially important fisheries, and human health. The complaint asserted that the Corps violated NEPA, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Endangered Species Act.