Posted on April 8, 2026
By Elise Plunk
A federal judge has rescinded a federal permit for a coastal restoration project in the Atchafalaya Basin, marking a win for environmental groups who sued to block the work.
Judge Brian A. Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana ruled March 31 that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers illegally issued a permit to the state’s Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority for the East Grand Lake flood control project.
The East Grand Lake project is part of a larger Corps of Engineers flood management system in the Atchafalaya Basin designed to promote water flow and quality as well as enhance wildlife habitat. Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Healthy Gulf and the Sierra Club’s Delta chapter joined the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West claim the Corps of Engineers did not fully consider public opposition and alternate sites before issuing the permit to the state.
The groups filed a lawsuit in 2023 to stop the project, arguing the Atchafalaya Basin does not need more sediment and that adding more would damage the area’s valuable habitat.
“Unlike many coastal areas of Louisiana, the Atchafalaya does not need more sediment, as it fills in vital habitat and fishing areas,” Healthy Gulf senior policy director Matt Rota said in a news release. “This natural and cultural resource must be protected, and this decision is another step in that direction.”
“All parties involved in this action understand the indispensable value the Atchafalaya Basin provides to Louisiana,” Jackson, a federal court appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote in his decision. “However, the parties disagree about the appropriate methods for remedying the basin’s deterioration.”
The Corps of Engineers declined to comment on the decision.
Brian Lezina, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority chief of planning and research, did not comment specifically on the ruling but said through a CPRA spokesperson that the agency remains committed to promoting projects that maintain the health of the Atchafalaya Basin.
Much of the environmental groups’ arguments in the lawsuit relied on information from Ivor van Heerden, a marine and coastal scientist controversially removed from his position at LSU in 2009 after his open critiques of the Army Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Katrina. In 2010, LSU settled with van Heerden after he brought a wrongful termination suit against the university.
According to van Heerden, who’s continued his decades of work as an environmental and coastal consultant, the East Grand Lake project would fill the Atchafalaya Basin with too much sediment, destroying wetlands and impacting crawfish harvesting.
The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority withdrew its initial permit application in 2021 because it didn’t fully account for the impacted wetland areas. It filed another application in 2022, which the Corps of Engineers granted in 2023 despite continued opposition from environmental groups and the public, according to the lawsuit.
The East Grand Lake ruling was one of two court victories for environmental groups on March 31. Two of the plaintiffs won a separate lawsuit against the Corps of Engineers over the construction of a dirt dam just further up the Atchafalaya Basin from Grand Lake.
A hunting club built a dam in 2021 to connect the two banks of Pat’s Throat Bayou near the Iberville-St. Martin parish line. The Corps of Engineers issued a permit for the dam’s construction after it had been built, according to the lawsuit. Atchafalaya Basinkeeper and the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West claimed the dam kept crawfishermen from traversing the bayou into other areas accessible by waterway.
Jackson also presided over the Pat’s Throat Bayou case and suspended the permit for the dam.
