Bunch v. Hodel

BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge.

Landowners, business owners, guides and others on Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, brought this action to enjoin the United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency from proceeding further with a controversial drawdown of water 5.8 feet below the normal pool level of Reel-foot Lake. The drawdown would expose fifty percent of the lake’s bed to the drying action of sun and wind for a few months. The drawdown was conceived by Tennessee Wildlife to combat the problems of depleted oxygen levels and reduced…