LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — A dispute between Lafayette Consolidated Government and St. Martin Parish is all but over, after a federal judge recommended a lawsuit filed by LCG be dismissed.

The lawsuit arises from a flood mitigation project by LCG involving, among other things, reducing a spoil bank on the St. Martin Parish side of Vermilion Bayou. LCG argued this will improve the flow of stormwater into and out of the Cypress Island Swamp and reduce flooding in Lafayette Parish.

LCG removed the spoil bank in March 2022 without permission or consultation from St. Martin Parish.

St. Martin Parish had passed an ordinance requiring a permit from the parish before any change to any levees in the parish, which LCG claimed in its lawsuit is unconsitutional.

St. Martin Parish moved to have the suit dismissed, and Magistrate Judge Carol B. Whitehurst recommended to Fifteenth Judicial District Court Judge Robert R. Summerhays that the motion be granted.

“It is recommended that the Motion to Dismiss be granted, and the claims of LCG be denied and dismissed with prejudice,” Whitehurst wrote.

Dismissal with prejudice means the ruling is final and may not be revisited. The parties now have two weeks to file objections to the recommendation before Summerhays makes his ruling.