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Aaron Kuriloff
| Reporter
new orleans new york

 

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SHELL GAMES


 
 

Day 1
SHELL GAMES 05/04/03
Hundreds of oystermen who traditionally eked out a living in the waters off St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes stand to reap $2 billion from a different source -- class-action lawsuits. Despite record harvests, they've convinced local courts that an environmental project to improve oystering has instead decimated their crops. Allowed to stand, the judgment places the state's ambitious plans to rebuild coastal marshes in peril. Catch subsequent installments of this feature every Sunday during the month of May 2003.

Oyster farmers initially backed project
  05/04/03
OIL INDUSTRY PUMPS UP OYSTER FARMS
  05/04/03

Day 2
GROUNDS TO SUE 05/11/03
Soon after it opened in 1991, the Caernarvon Diversion was turned on full blast at the behest of influential landowners worried about land loss. A project designed to help oystering hurt it instead, as the cascade of muddy river water decimated some oyster beds. The state's hesitation to correct its mistake and settle grower's claims led to $2 billion in judgments that threaten to derail future marsh-restoration projects.

LOUISIANA LEADS NATION IN OYSTER PRODUCTION
  5/11/03

Day 3
SINKING CHANGES 05/18/03
Rebuffed in federal court, oyster growers found allies in the courts of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, where local judges and a local jury awarded them about $2 billion.

STATE'S ATTORNEY BLASTED FROM ALL SIDES
  05/18/03
Day 4
MURKY WATERS 05/25/03
Just when it seemed an ambitious program to restore Louisiana's coast would finally come to fruition, a series of court awards to oyster farmers was issued, and now the entire $14 billion plan could be washed away.
LAWSUITS FORCE OYSTER LEASING TO A HALT
  05/25/03