Ronda Crutchfield v. Sewerage & Water Board

GREGG COSTA, Circuit Judge:

Located below sea level, with Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south, New Orleans is particularly susceptible to flooding. This case arises from recent efforts to address this intractable problem. Created twenty years ago, the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project aimed to reduce flooding by improving draining canals, increasing capacity for pump stations, and constructing new pump stations. But its efforts at constructing a new canal in New Orleans’s Ninth Ward resulted in complaints of property damage to surrounding homes.…