A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to halt construction on the New Madrid Floodway Project, a major flood control project in Missouri's Bootheel. Leaders of small communities prone to flooding there responded with dismay Tuesday. U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson ruled Friday in Washington in favor of two environmental groups, Environmental Defense and the National Wildlife Federation, which brought a case in 2004 opposing the long-controversial project. He said the Corps also must dismantle work already completed on the project. About $7 million has been spent on the roughly $107 million project, the Corps said. The St. John's Bayou/New Madrid Floodway Project has been proposed for along the Mississippi River in southeast Missouri's Bootheel region.
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