Judge dismisses lawsuit seeking to protect dolphins along Mississippi Gulf Coast

GULFPORT, Miss. — A federal judge has dismissed a trial who sought to protect dolphins along the Mississippi Gulf Coast after dozens were killed or sickened in 2019 following the prolonged opening of a spillway used for flood control.

U.S. District Court Judge Louis Guirola Jr. ruled Wednesday that local governments and business groups that filed a civil complaint in January lack standing to sue. The judge said the plaintiffs, who called themselves the Mississippi Sound Coalition, failed to prove they faced imminent harm.

The coalition had sued the Army Corps of Engineers over its operation of the Bonnet Carré spillway upstream of New Orleans. The spillway diverts water from the Mississippi River into Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, where it flows into the Mississippi Sound in the Gulf of Mexico.

When river levels are high, opening the spillway reduces pressure on the levees that protect New Orleans. However, it also causes pollutants and nutrients to flow into the Mississippi Sound and reduces salinity.

The coalition’s lawsuit claims that polluted freshwater that flowed into the Gulf in 2019, when the spillway was open for a total of 120 days, left dead and sick bottlenose dolphins stranded on Mississippi beaches. An expert cited in the lawsuit said 142 sick and dead dolphins washed ashore.

The coalition said the gruesome spectacle tarnished the tourism and seafood industries, which are vital to the region’s economy.

The group’s lawyers argued that the Marine Mammal Protection Act requires the Army Corps and other agencies to obtain permits from the U.S. Department of Commerce when their actions could kill, injure or harass animals like the bottlenose dolphin. They wanted a judge to order the Army Corps to apply for permits before conducting future operations at the Bonnet Carré spillway.

The judge sided with the Army Corps of Engineers, ruling that the coalition had failed to demonstrate that it faced imminent harm from future spillway openings because their frequency and duration are unpredictable, as is the potential threat to dolphins.

The judge noted that the coalition presented no evidence that dolphins were harmed during the last spillway opening in 2020, or during previous openings in 2018 and 2016.

“The possibility of future harm alleged by the plaintiffs is too speculative,” the judge wrote.

Robert Wiygul, an attorney for the Mississippi Sound Coalition, did not immediately respond to an email message Saturday.