Corps still mum on Yazoo Pumps costs, despite nearing final decision

JACKSON, Miss. – by Alex Rozier – On November 29, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its final environmental study on a tweaked version of the Yazoo Pumps. For years now, state politicians and south Delta residents have tangled with conservationists from around the country over the merit of the flood control proposal.

The final study’s release triggered a 30-day waiting period, Corps spokesperson Christi Kilroy explained, for the agency to comb over the proposal one more time. The public and other agencies can still give input, although this isn’t a formal comment period. After the 30 days, which stretches until the end of December, the Corps can enter a final decision over which project to move forward with.

Despite the agency nearing the final stages of a years-long process, the Corps still hasn’t released any cost estimate for the project. The last quote the Corps gave was $220 million for a previous version of the pumps in 2008, but the new cost is likely much higher. In 2021, Rep. Bennie Thompson gave a $500 million estimate.

“Following the signing of a (Record of Decision), (the Corps) will begin the Pre-engineering and Design phase, which will clarify the final design and associated construction costs,” Kilroy said via e-mail. “Funding for both will be requested through the normal budgetary process.”

The agency hasn’t responded to follow-up questions about whether it’s normal to wait this long to disclose a price range and whether it’s fair to not do so until after the public has had a chance to comment.

The final study shows the Corps’ support for “Alternative 3,” which would include a more powerful pumping station than the version of the project that the Environmental Protection Agency vetoed in 2008. The EPA, then under President George W. Bush, vetoed the project in part because of its potential to damage 67,000 acres of ecologically valuable wetlands in the south Delta.

In 2019, in an area which regularly gets inundated when the Mississippi River gets too high, the south Delta saw its largest ever backwater flood. Some homes were flooded for as long as six months, and local agricultural losses amounted to over $800 million, according to research cited by the Corps.

For a story Mississippi Today partnered with NBC News on, former EPA assistant administrator for water Ben Grumbles said that the cost and environmental impacts of the Yazoo Pumps “fully justified” the 2008 veto.

Under “Alternative 3,” the Corps would be able to pump out water from inside the area’s levee system — when the Mississippi River is too high, flooding that happens in between the levees pools up in the south Delta — from March 25 through Oct. 15. The Corps selected the pumping period to balance keeping farmland dry during crop season with keeping enough water in the area to maintain its wetlands.

The new proposed pumping system would have a capacity of 25,000 cubic feet per second, or cfs, which is about 78% more powerful than what the Corps previously proposed. The Corps said that 25,000 cfs is necessary to protect homes above 93-foot elevation. It’d also be more powerful than the world’s largest pumping station in Louisiana, which has a capacity of 19,000 cfs.

The study projects that, with “Alternative 3,” 1,573 structures, including 780 homes, would likely no longer flood in a 2019 repeat scenario. Another 335 buildings, including 152 homes, would still flood in that scenario, but they would be eligible for voluntary buyouts. The latest study removes mandatory buyouts that the Corps proposed in its draft study over the summer.

Environmental advocates from the National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, National Audubon Society and Healthy Gulf continue to oppose the pumps. They point to the Corps’ projection that Alternative 3 would “change the flood inundation interval” of 89,000 acres of wetlands. While the Corps says the project wouldn’t convert those wetlands to non-wetlands, the agency admits the project could “decrease” the area’s “wetland functions.”

“Our organizations steadfastly oppose the proposed 25,000 cubic-foot-per-second (cfs) pumping plant,” the groups wrote, reiterating their support for non-structural alternatives such as landowners putting their land in easement programs, or buy-outs available through federal funding. “(We) once again call on the Corps to permanently abandon consideration of this and any variation of the Yazoo Pumps.”

They also criticized the lack of a cost-benefit analysis in the Corps’ study, pointing out that the pump station in Louisiana cost roughly $1 billion to build over a decade ago.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrote to the Corps that it previously opposed earlier versions of the project that activated the pumps at 87-foot elevation.

“It is our opinion that previous planning efforts by the USACE emphasized agricultural drainage to the detriment of fish and wildlife resources,” USFWS wrote.

This version, though, better protects the area’s wildlife by instead pumping at 90 feet, the agency said. The new version also includes mitigation to offset wetland impacts, which it says were “deficient” in previous pumps proposals.

During the Corps’ comment period over the summer, south Delta farmers advocated for “Alternative 2” in the study, which would allow pumping to start on March 16 rather than March 25. They pointed out that even though the pumping would start in March, it would take weeks to dry out farm land in the area, pushing back when they can plant crops such as corn.

Mississippi Today first published this article. The Vicksburg Daily News republishes it here under a Creative Commons license.