By RUSS HENDERSON
Staff Reporter
A proposed lawsuit settlement calls for experts to study whether U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging has increased Dauphin Island erosion over the past half century.
If so, the settlement states, the state and federal government may spend $7.6 million on a beach restoration project.
The settlement, if approved by a judge, would bring to a halt five years of litigation between the Corps of Engineers and island property owners who claim the corps' ship channel dredging practices promote beach erosion.
Lawyers in the case filed the 40-page settlement at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington late Friday afternoon. Judge Bohdan Futey could take action on the case within a few months, said Richard Davis, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers.
The settlement would establish a four-member panel of coastal engineers who would study the problem over a one-year timespan, then propose solutions. One possible result is a "remediation project" for the island costing up to $7.6 million, according to the settlement document.
"We're very pleased with the outcome of the lawsuit," said John Reed, president of the Dauphin Island Property Owners Association, which filed the suit in March 2000. "We have complete confidence that the panel will find in our favor because the evidence is overwhelmingly on our side."