Climate Change

Mississippi Supreme Court finds that artificial beach is public trust property

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Harris v. State, 2018 WL 5839607 (Miss. Nov. 8, 2018).

Abutting landowners brought an action against the State of Mississippi, a city, and a county to confirm title to waterfront properties. A trial court granted partial summary judgment in favor of the landowners on the issue of tideland boundaries, confirmed the landowners’ title, and ruled that the government parties failed to prove adverse possession or public prescriptive easement. On appeal, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed and remanded. Following a trial, the lower court held that Mississippi held title to the sand beach in front of landowners’ properties as public-trust tidelands and granted easements to the county and city. The landowners appealed. The Mississippi Supreme Court held that the beach was public-trust tidelands; the trial court acted within its discretion in relying on lay witness testimony that the beach was man-made; the expert report did not establish that beach was natural rather than man-made; and the pumping of sand along the shoreline did not constitute an uncompensated taking.

(Thanks for Mississippi Sea Grant National Law Center)

Climate Change

Hurricane Florence and Climate Change

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The human influence on Hurricane Florence – a real time forecast based on climate change information

For Hurricane Florence, we present the first advance forecasted attribution statements about the human influence on a tropical cyclone. We find that rainfall will be significantly increased by over 50% in the heaviest precipitating parts of the storm. This increase is substantially larger than expected from thermodynamic considerations alone. We further find that the storm will remain at a high category on the Saffir­Simpson scale for a longer duration and that the storm is approximately 80 km in diameter larger at landfall because of the human interference in the climate system.

 

Climate Change

Court Requires More Detailed NEPA Inquiry for Federal CAFO Loan

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Food & Water Watch v. United States Dep’t of Agric., No. CV 17-1714 (BAH), 2018 WL 4283568 (D.D.C. Sept. 7, 2018)

From the opinion:

The plaintiff, Food & Water Watch (“FWW”), has filed a nine-count complaint against three defendants, the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”), the Farm Service Agency (“FSA”), and Deanna Dunning, in her official capacity as an FSA Farm Loan Officer (collectively, “defendants”), under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. § 551, et seq., and the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321–70, seeking an order and judgment setting aside an environmental assessment completed by the defendants in connection with a nonparty farm’s “application for a guaranteed loan to construct and operate a poultry concentrated animal feeding operation,” “[d]eclaring that Defendants violated NEPA by failing” to complete an adequate environmental impact statement in connection with the loan application, and “[e]njoining implementation of Defendants’ loan guarantee.” Compl. ¶¶ 1, 5, ECF No. 1. The defendants have moved for judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c), contending that the plaintiff’s claims are moot and that the plaintiff lacks standing, see generally Defs.’ Mot. J. Pleadings (“Defs.’ Mot.”), ECF No. 17, while the plaintiff has moved to compel the complete Administrative Record (“AR”), see generally Pl.’s Mot. Compel AR (“Pl.’s Mot. Compel”), ECF No. 18.1 For the reasons described below, the plaintiff’s claims are not moot and the plaintiff has standing to pursue this lawsuit. Accordingly, the defendants’ motion is denied while the plaintiff’s motion is granted.2

Climate Change

Military Expert Panel Report: Sea Level Rise and the U.S. Military’s Mission, 2nd Edition

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Military Expert Panel Report: Sea Level Rise and the U.S. Military’s Mission, 2nd Edition (2018)

From the Report WWW page:

The Center for Climate and Security’s Military Expert Panel Report: Sea Level Rise and the U.S. Military’s Mission, 2nd Edition concludes that sea level rise risks to coastal military installations will present serious risks to military readiness, operations and strategy, and includes new information regarding military installation vulnerabilities, including to the energy and transportation infrastructure that these installations depend on.

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FEMA, Stafford Act

Stafford Act – Keystone of Federal Disaster Response

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Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (as amended August 2016)Download

The Stafford Act includes a limitation of liability provision which provides, in relevant part that: 

The Federal Government shall not be liable for any claim based upon the exercise or performance of or the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function or duty on the part of a Federal agency or an employee of the Federal Government in carrying out the provisions of this chapter. 42 U.S.C § 5148.

Stafford Act immunity for Katrina debris removal decisions by FEMA – St. Tammany Parish v. Federal Emergency Management Agency, 556 F.3d 307 (5th Cir. 2009)

Order Denying FEMA Extension – SANTOS v FEMA, No. CV 18-40111-TSH, 2018 WL 4168993 (D. Mass. Aug. 30, 2018)

CRS, Congressional Primer on Responding to Major Disasters and Emergencies (2017)Download

CRS, Federal Disaster Assistance Response and Recovery Programs: Brief Summaries (2018)

Flood Control Plan, Geologic History, Mississippi River, Mississippi River Floods, Morganza Spillway, Old River Control Structure

The Geology and Hydrology of the Mississippi Delta

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Master WWW page

Ellet, Charles. Report on the overflows of the delta of the Mississippi. AB Hamilton, 1852.

Humphreys, A. A., & Abbot, H. L. (1861). Report upon the physics and hydraulics of the Mississippi river: Upon the protection of the alluvial region against overflow; and upon the deepening of the mouths … Submitted to the Bureau of Topographical Engineers, War Department, 1861. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co.

Fisk, H.N., 1944, Geological investigation of the alluvial valley of the lower Mississippi River: U.S. Department of the Army, Mississippi River Commission, 78p.

Fisk, Harold Norman. Geological investigation of the Atchafalaya Basin and the problem of Mississippi River diversion. Waterways Experiment Station, 1952.

Roger T Saucier, Recent geomorphic history of the Pontchartrain Basin, Louisiana, (1962).

James M Coleman & Lynn D Wright, Analysis of Major River Systems and Their Deltas: Procedures and Rationale, with Two Examples., (1971).

Moore, Norman R. Improvement of the lower Mississippi River and tributaries, 1931-1972. Vicksburg, Miss.: Mississippi River Commission, 1972.

Kazmann, Raphael Gabriel, and David B Johnson. “If the Old River Control Structure Fails?” (1980).

Saucier, R. T., 1994, Geomorphology and Quaternary Geologic History of the Lower Mississippi Valley: U. S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Map – Quaternary Geology of The Lower Mississippi Valley, Louisiana Geological Survey, 1989.

Louis D Britsch & E Burton Kemp III, Land loss rates: Mississippi River Deltaic Plain (1990).

Joseph B Dunbar, Louis D Britsch & EB Kemp III, Land Loss Rates. Report 2. Louisiana Chenier Plain (1990).

Joseph B Dunbar, LD Britsch & E Burton Kemp, Land loss rates. Report 3. Louisiana Coastal Plain (1992).

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Climate Change

Hurricane Harvey: Texas at Risk Page

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Hurricane Harvey: Texas at Risk, Texas General Land Office (2018)

Recommendation #4

The state legislature should establish by state statute a Regional Building Code District (RBCD) with standard-setting authority in the high-risk hurricane region of Southeast Texas which would replace the existing weak and uneven building code system. The Commission would have oversight over building codes in the RBCD which will be composed of the following ten Councils of Government or regional planning areas: Lower Rio Grande Valley, Coastal Bend, Golden Crescent Regional Planning Commission, Houston-Galveston Area, Central Texas, Alamo Area, Brazos Valley, Capital Area, Deep East Texas, and South East Texas. These are the areas historically most at risk of hurricane flooding and wind damage.

Recommendation #5

The state should fund at least 75% of the salary costs of building code enforcement (local inspectors and third-party contractors working for cities and counties) with 25% funded by building permit fees in this new Regional Building Code District. The same capacity strengthening salary program should be extended by the State of Texas for city and county recovery managers.

 

Climate Change

UNDERWATER Podcast – 2016 Louisiana Flood – created by students at the University of Louisiana

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https://sites.google.com/view/underwaterpodcast/

Between August 11 and August 15, 2016 more than 3 times the amount of rainfall from Hurricane Katrina fell in a massive rainstorm, mostly over Southern Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico.

Student and Faculty researchers have collaborated to present accounts from those affected by these historic and unnamed floods, beginning with the Lafayette area, in a podcast series entitled UNDERWATER: Memories of the 2016 Floods.

Climate Change

OHIO RIVER BASIN– Formulating Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation Strategies through Regional Collaboration with the ORB Alliance

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Generally, modeling results indicate a gradual increase in annual mean temperatures between 2011 and 2040 amounting to one-half degree per decade, with greater increases between 2041 and 2099 of one full degree per decade. Hydrologic flow changes show substantial variability across the ORB through the three time periods, with Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)-4 sub-basins located northeast, east, and south of the Ohio River expected to experience greater precipitation and thus higher stream flows—up to 50% greater—during most of the three 30-year periods. Conversely, those HUC-4s located north and west of the Ohio River are expected to experience ever-decreasing precipitation (especially during the autumn season) resulting in decreased in-stream flows—up to 50% less—during the same periods.

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