More than 200 people have filed a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for mismanaging the Missouri River when it flooded in 2011. That includes some South Dakotans, plus residents from four other states. The lawsuit claims the federal government is taking private land without fair compensation. Governor Dennis Daugaard says he doesn’t blame residents for trying.
“I think it’s interesting, I think it’s a high hill to climb. I’ll be surprised if it’s successful. You have to be able to demonstrate that when the Corps created the systems of dams and channelized some of the river, that it was foreseeable that this flooding would occur. And I think, unless you can achieve that initial threshold, then the suits don’t proceed,” Daugaard says.
The lawsuit goes back to 2006 when there was a major policy change that added other priorities to the Corps’ duties, and flood control was no longer the only main interest.