[StBernard] Class-action suit seeks MR-GO's end

[Westley Annis]

Class-action suit seeks MR-GO's end
Residents sue corps, want dangers studied 
Thursday, July 13, 2006
By Susan Finch

Eight residents of St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans' 9th Ward, including
two public officials, filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday aimed at
forcing closure of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet to stop it from
funneling floodwaters into their homes and businesses, as it did during last
year's Hurricane Katrina and 1965's Hurricane Betsy. 

Filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, under whose supervision the
waterway was completed 40 years ago, the lawsuit seeks appointment of a
panel of scientific experts to study the dangers posed by the channel and
recommend ways to address them, including rebuilding now-destroyed wetlands
that protected against storm surges before the waterway was built. 

The suit also asks the court to select a special master to preside over the
experts' work and monitor implementation of any remedial measures ordered by
the court. 

 
Through spokesman John Hall, the corps said it had not seen a copy of the
lawsuit and therefore could not comment on it. 

The suit charges that from the time Congress authorized the MR-GO in 1956,
the corps has ignored federal and state laws requiring studies of the
environmental effects of the channel since before it was dug. 

"You can't fix half the (flooding) problem, which is the levees, without
fixing the other half, which is the MR-GO," said attorney Pierce O'Donnell
of California, who joined members of 12 other law firms from Louisiana,
Mississippi, Florida and California to bring the case to court. 

O'Donnell said the corps would be consulted on the remediation work, but in
his view it can't be trusted to fix a problem it helped create. 

O'Donnell also said he and his colleagues have reason to believe that the
corps included closure of the MR-GO on a list of proposed projects sent to
the White House, where mention of the project was removed. "The White House
has nixed any closure of the MR-GO," he said. 

U.S. Rep. Charles Melancon, D-La., said Wednesday that a corps report
authorized by Congress on what hurricane-protection projects are needed for
south Louisiana was "hijacked by the administration" and retooled to
eliminate the MR-GO closure and four other projects. Melancon said he is
trying to bring the situation to the attention of congressional
appropriations officials. 

Lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit to force closure of the MR-GO are St. Bernard
Councilman Mark Madary and New Orleans City Councilwoman Cynthia
Willard-Lewis, who represents the 9th Ward and eastern New Orleans. 

Madary said the courts are the only avenue citizens have to close "this
gruesome atrocity," because years of pleas and demands -- among them a dozen
from the St. Bernard Council in the past two years -- have been ignored by
Congress and the Bush administration. 

To those who argue that the MR-GO is necessary to the area's economy, Madary
said, "The economic loss should not outweigh any other interest. It's now
time for the government to make the people safe in their homes," he said. 

Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are: Charles "Pete" Savoy and Gerald Nevle,
longtime St. Bernard residents; Pam Nevle, former member of the St. Bernard
Coastal Zone Advisory Board; Lower 9th Ward resident Pam Dashiell, head of
the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association; and Shawn and Nga Tran, who own a
home and a restaurant in eastern New Orleans. 

Dashiell described the suit as "a huge step toward conserving and respecting
human life and commemorating those lives that were lost" during Katrina. 

The class-action petition is being handled by the same group of lawyers that
filed a federal court damage case in April on behalf of WDSU-TV anchorman
Norman Robinson and others who blamed the MR-GO, which they branded a
"hurricane highway," for the flooding that destroyed their property during
Katrina. 

. . . . . . . 

Susan Finch can be reached at sfinch at timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3340.