Here are a few more articles and links to information about the Dauphin Island Property Owners' Association lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers' dredging practices.
Judge OKs beach suit settlement
A federal judge has approved the settlement of a lawsuit filed by Dauphin Island property owners against the Army Corps of Engineers over dredging practices at the Mobile Bay ship channel.
The settlement creates a panel of four experts to study the corps' role in the island's erosion problem and recommend a remedy. The study could result in a project costing $7.6 million -- or more, if congressional funding is secured -- to restore the island's vastly eroded beaches.
The lawsuit settlement is seen as the island's best hope for beach restoration, since the island Property Owners Association announced last month that legal complications had stymied efforts to hand over 3½ miles of privately owned west-end beach to a public entity that could secure federal funds for beach restoration.
The private, nonprofit property owners' association is ineligible for such public restoration money.
"The settlement doesn't solve all our problems, but it's very helpful," said John Reed, association president. "Clearly, $7 million isn't enough to build the sort of engineered beach that is possible through public funds, so we need to try to keep working in that direction."
After Hurricane Katrina left most of the association's west-end beach under water, Reed led an effort to transfer the land to the town of Dauphin Island, Mobile County or some other public entity.
Last week, the association's lawyer informed board members that the land's deed prohibited the beach parcel's sale, lease or transfer and even proscribed any use that was not for the exclusive benefit of island property owners.
Reed said the board is seeking a way around the restriction.
"Public access remains vitally important" to the board's efforts to secure funding and political support to restore the island's beaches, Reed said.
Scott Douglass, a coastal engineer with the University of South Alabama, has long maintained that sand moving in from the east on a wave-driven conveyor belt across the shoal falls into the ship channel, where it collects until the corps dredges it up and dumps it several miles offshore -- far from the shoal that supports Dauphin Island's beaches.
Motivated in part by Douglass' claims, the Dauphin Island Property Owners Association filed its case in March 2000 with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The case sought unspecified monetary damages and an order requiring the corps to alter its dredging practices so that its work does not harm the island.
The proposed settlement was filed in July of last year after five years of litigation. Judge Bohdan Futey of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims filed his approval of the settlement Tuesday.
Should the panel decide that the corps has harmed the island, the property owners could resume the lawsuit and attempt to claim cash compensation or the corps could implement a $7,692,308 project to repair the damage.
That precise figure is included in the settlement because federal law allows the corps to spend up to $5 million on such projects without congressional approval. The state could pay an additional 35 percent of the cost up to $2,692,308.
If the project costs more than $7.7 million, the settlement allows the corps time to see whether Congress will furnish additional funds, Reed said.