Federal Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr.’s decision came Wednesday on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project, the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a navigation channel known as MR-GO (pronounced Mister Go).  In the 156-page decision the judge wrote about complicated immunity issues and determined that the corps’s negligent maintenance of the channel actually caused flooding in two areas, including the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.

The judge ruled that the corps was liable for damages because, he said, it should have been filing environmental impact statements as the landscape around the channel significantly changed: wetlands had disappeared, levee banks had eroded, and the channel had more than doubled in width.  Read More.