Great Lakes Law

Federal district court dismisses states’ lawsuit seeking hydrologic separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basin to stop invasive Asian carp; states appeal

The Great Lakes states have lost another round in the legal fight to stop the spread of invasive Asian carp from the Mississippi River Basin. A federal district court has dismissed the suit brought by Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, seeking measures to prevent Asian carp from moving through the Chicago Area Waterway System into Lake Michigan. (Michigan v. U.S. Army... Read more →

U.S. Supreme Court Allows Takings Claim to Proceed for Temporary Flooding by Dam Releases, but Remands for Consideration of State Water Law Doctrine

The U.S. Supreme Court just issued a unanimous decision in Arkansas Game and Fish Commission v. United States, allowing a landowner to proceed with a takings claim for compensation from temporary flooding caused by the federal government’s operation of a dam. The decision reversed a 2011 Federal Circuit Court of Appeals decision that would have only allowed takings claims for “permanent or inevitably recurring” flooding. However, the Court’s decision allowing a landowner’s takings claim for... Read more →