LAFAYETTE – Local crawfishermen, sportsmen and others who use the Atchafalaya Basin for recreation are asking the federal government to come down on a Lafayette man they claim has dammed off a natural lake near Butte La Rose.

Made defendant in the petition, filed in U.S. District Court here, is Richard P. Comeaux, who is apparently managing Lost Lake for duck hunting.

Early in 2007, the Army Corps of Engineers ordered Comeaux to stop clearing and filling land and operating an unauthorized water control structure and pump. But the Corps subsequently issued an after-the-fact permit for the activities.

The plaintiffs, the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association - West and Atchafalaya Basinkeeper Dean Wilson filed suit to force the Corps to enforce provisions of the Rivers and Harbors Act dealing with navigability, and the EPA to enforce the Clean Water Act with regard to the discharge of spoil and mechanical removal of trees and brush from a natural waterway.

Like most lakes in the Basin, Lost Lake is susceptible to the rise and fall of the Atchafalaya River.

The LCPA-West, along with local elements of the Sierra Club, were successful in federal court earlier in having a similar “perched” lake, Rycade Lake, declared public waters.

The same groups also forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Louisiana black bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and again later to have FWS designate critical habitat for the subspecies.