LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – At a news conference Friday morning, Attorney General Jeff Landry announced his office is filing suit against the Army Corps of Engineers for failing to maintain the banks along the Intracoastal Canal, playing a large role in the erosion of the Louisiana coastline.

The 11-page lawsuit provided by the attorney general’s office lays out the original agreement between landowners and the United States back in 1920 when what’s now known as the Intracoastal Waterway was built.

Nearly 100 years, according to the AG, failure to maintain the banks have added to coastal erosion

Landry says, “I hear from Americans and Louisianians every day about how regulators consistently regulate them and the problem is no one regulates the regulators and today that stops.” 

Landry says thousands of acres of Louisiana’s coastland has been lost because the Corps failed to maintain banks along the Intracoastal, according to Landry.

“When the Intracoastal Canal was dug, the core was granted a 300-foot servitude. Today, in some places, that channel is over 900 feet wide.”

Landry says the plan for the suit doesn’t involve a jackpot-style payout. His hope is that the Corps will restore the lost land outside of the agreed upon 300 feet width of the canal; in addition to putting in place a mechanism by which that land, that servitude will be maintained.

The Army Corps of Engineers public information specialist, Rene Poche says they cannot comment on pending litigation.

Governor John Bel Edwards issued a statement on the pending lawsuit:

“The Attorney General did not consult with the Governor or the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority on his lawsuit. It’s unfortunate that the agency charged with developing strategies for dealing with coastal wetlands was not consulted at all. While coastal restoration is a top priority of Gov. Edwards, as evidenced by the significant work we have done over the last two years to expedite projects, we will review the lawsuit once the language is provided to us and determine the best path forward for the state.”