The Natchez-Adams School District could benefit from a lawsuit filed against the federal government Monday by Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the state’s school systems, claims the federal government unconstitutionally took 8,000 acres of public school lands and seeks $25 million in restitution.

The lawsuit alleges the federal government, through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ efforts to control the course of the Mississippi River, effectively rendered 8,000 acres of the state’s 16th section lands unusable due to artificial flooding.

Affected school districts named in the lawsuit, include Claiborne County School District (657 impacted acres), Natchez-Adams School District (5,540 impacted acres) and the Wilkinson County School District (1,734 impacted acres).

The loss of land use has cost the affected school districts millions of dollars in revenue, Hosemann said, that could have been generated through land management, timber sales, hunting leases and other opportunities.

“Sixteenth Section land is select property in each county set aside when the state was formed for the benefit of public schools,” Hosemann said. “Across the state, about 640,000 acres of 16th Section land are held in trust for 101 school districts.”

The Natchez-Adams School District Board of Trustees issued statement Monday afternoon saying the board supports the decision to sue the federal government.

“It is the board of trustees’ responsibility to protect the interests of students in the district,” the school board statement reads. “The sixteenth section properties are provided to school districts for the support of public education. These sixteenth section properties are an extremely important revenue source for the district and are used for the support of the schools. So, we believe that because of the revenue loss caused, it was in the best interest of our students to join the lawsuit with our neighboring school districts.”

Efforts undertaken in the early 1950s to control the course of the Mississippi River resulted in a loss of the use of the school districts’ 16th section lands, Hosemann said.

“The allegations in the complaint, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, stem from artificial flooding caused by the Old River Control Structure, a water control project under the purview of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” Hosemann said. “Launched in the early 1950s, the project sought to change the natural course of water flowing from the Mississippi River to the Atchafalaya River by diverting more water down the Mississippi River. The goal was to prevent damage to cities in Louisiana, including Baton Rouge and New Orleans.”

Hosemann said when the river diversion plan began in the 1950s, landowners in Louisiana were offered money for flooding easements on their land but the same did not occur in Mississippi.

“There are levees on the Louisiana side and no levees on the Mississippi side, Hosemann said. “They bought those easements from individuals on the Louisiana side, and they have used them as they have opened the Old River Structure and also the hydroelectric plant, and they’ve used those as floodways — there are hunting camps and all kinds for things in there and they clear them out and open up the floodgates and they also open up the Bonnet Carre spillway.”

Hosemann said the issue is not just the water. It also is silt.

“There is 150 million tons of silt that come down the Mississippi River every year, and that 150 million tons of silt goes somewhere and it doesn’t just go to the end of the Mississippi,” Hosemann said, explaining the silt settles on the bottom of the river and contributes to the flooding.

“The Corps of Engineers realized the silt would back up,” Hosemann said, “and they have to dredge the river over the years the silt sediment has backed up water on the Mississippi.”

Hosemann said historical data show that from 1950 to 1972 the Mississippi River had 75 flood days; from 1973 to 2016 the river had 1,061 flood days and from 2007 to 2016 the river was above flood stage about 70 percent of the time.

“So, it is obvious to us that this silting is occurring, and it’s causing the water to back up on 8,000 acres of school land,” Hosemann said.

The Corps of Engineers, Hosemann said, conducted a recent study that showed if they opened the Old River Control Structure more often, it would do little to reduce the flooding because of the silting.

“It became obvious to me that this was going to become of a permanent nature…. ” Hosemann said. “(After reviewing several studies) we came to the conclusion this was something we would have to file in order to protect the 8,000 acres of Mississippi’s school lands.”

Hosemann said he does not fault the Corps of Engineers for making the decision to change the course of the river in the 1950s.

“The decision made at the time by the Corps of Engineers to protect the wards of Baton Rouge are not at issue with the state of Mississippi … it was clearly the appropriate decision to be made (at the time with the threat of the river changing course in the 1950s),” Hosemann said. “I have no issue with the Corps of Engineers about the decisions process they made…. This is just a constitutional issue. The government by these actions paid for easements in Louisiana, and they never paid for Mississippi and we can’t harvest our timber.”

Past similar cases, including Arkansas Game and Fish Commission vs. the United States and Ideker Farms Inc. vs. United States, Hosemann said, were both decided in favor of the states over loss of land use due to similar federal government-created flooding.

If the case is decided in the Mississippi’s favor, Hosemann said all of the money would be distributed among the affected school districts. Hosemann did not, however, stipulate on how the money would be divided between those districts.

Hosemann said 20 to 25 percent of any money paid to the state would go to the northern 22 counties of the state that share in the other southern counties’ 16th section land revenues because those northern counties do not have 16th section land.

“We don’t believe we will be able to manage the 16th section lands ever (in the affected counties),” Hosemann said. “Until the Mississippi River changes course, backup on our property amounts to a permanent taking of our land.”