Army Corps of Engineers failed to protect dolphins in 2019 spillway opening, lawsuit says

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers polluted the Mississippi Sound and put bottlenose dolphins in harm's way when it opened the Bonnet Carré Spillway for several weeks in 2019, local Mississippi governments and business groups said in a lawsuit.

The agency opened the spillway in the 2019 floods as water levels rose, at one point rising 6 inches in 24 hours. It discharged about 10.5 trillion cubic feet of polluted water from the Mississippi River, the lawsuit said, severely injuring and killing bottlenose dolphins, which live in salt water.

Harrison County, the three cities of Biloxi, D'Iberville, and Pass Christian, the Mississippi Hotel and Lodging Association, and Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United filed the lawsuit Monday against the Army Corps of Engineers in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.

"The massive volumes of polluted fresh water diverted through the Bonnet Carré Spillway and into the Mississippi Sound caused direct and indirect mortality of resident bottlenose dolphins," the complaint, obtained by USA TODAY, said. "Many of the dolphins that did survive developed extremely painful and debilitating skin lesions."

Bonnet Carré Spillway opened in 2019 floods

Opening the spillway in 2019 released a flood of polluted fresh water from the Mississippi River through the Lake Pontchartrain Basin and into the Mississippi Sound, the lawsuit said, "wreaking havoc on the natural resources, communities, and businesses on the Mississippi Gulf Coast."

The lawsuit argues the Marine Mammal Protection Act requires federal agencies like the Corps to acquire a permit from the U.S. Department of Commerce when its actions may disrupt behavioral patterns of marine life.

Local Mississippi governments and business groups sued the Corps in 2019 over the spillway openings, and the judge ruled in favor of the suit in January 2023, stating the Corps must consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service before opening the spillway.

Lawsuit: 166 dolphin strandings in 2019,

The lawsuit alleges the spillway was opened for the longest time in 2019 since it was completed in the early 1930s at over 120 days. It was opened Feb. 27, 2019, through April 11, 2019, and again in mid-May through July that year.

As a result, the salt content dropped drastically in the water along the Mississippi coast, which can cause skin lesions, abnormal blood chemistry, secondary infections, or death for bottlenose dolphins, the lawsuit said, depending on how low the water's salt content is and for how long.

The lawsuit said the two years that saw the highest number of dolphin "strandings," which means they are either alive on the beach and unable to return to water or dead, in the Mississippi Sound was in 2011 at 147 dolphins and 2019 at 166 dolphins. Both years saw major flooding and use of the spillway.

'We need to look for alternatives that can protect everyone’s interests'

Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has said the Corps of Engineers ignored its own procedures in opening Bonnet Carré Spillway in 2019, causing an environmental and economic disaster.

Robert Wiygul, one of the attorneys representing the Mississippi Sound Coalition, said the group and Mississippi leaders have no conflict with protecting New Orleans.

“We do have a conflict with the Corps of Engineers and the Corps’ position that the Mississippi Sound and our dolphins have to be sacrificed to prevent flooding,” Wiygul said in a statement Wednesday. “We need to look for alternatives that can protect everyone’s interests, but the Corps refuses to even discuss them. The Mississippi Sound Coalition is working on win-win solutions that protect everyone.”

Contributing: The Associated Press