Environmental study planned for proposed casino project in Mississippi

Monday, Nov. 6, 2000 | 10:15 a.m.

In August, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should not have issued permits to three casino projects in environmentally sensitive areas of the coast without performing environmental impact statements. The other projects, one on the Bay of St. Louis in Hancock County and one in D'Iberville, have not scheduled environmental impact statements.

The developers will pay for the EIS, just as developers did for the Destination Broadwater project, which proposed to fill in about 50 acres of the Mississippi Sound to create a massive casino complex in Biloxi.

Pine Hills has been in partnership with Mandalay Bay, formerly Circus Circus, a major Las Vegas casino company.

A draft of the EIS is expected to be complete by summer 2001.

The corps is now compiling an environmental impact statement that covers Harrison and Hancock counties. It will determine the environmental impact of casino development for the next 20 years.

Pine Hills developers plan to dredge a 3.9-acre basin to 7 feet deep for a 500-foot-by-300-foot casino barge. They want to build a 450-foot bulkhead and a 700-foot-by-8-foot pier.

The casino would have a 30-story, 1,400-room hotel and a parking lot for 3,500 cars.

"We want to see how development is going to affect the long-term health of the Bay of St. Louis," said Noni DeBardeleben, president of a citizens group that opposes any casino on the Bay and feels more suitable sites are available in Biloxi.