“It’s a very good day”- Ann Dahl with Finish the Pumps

The United States Corps of Engineers announced on Thursday, its plans for mitigating flooding in the Delta. The news carried confirmation on installing the long-debated pumps that many feel are necessary to protect their homes.

A serious victory for Mississippians

Governor Tate Reeves issued a statement on Thursday, stating the announcement was a “serious victory for Mississippians.”

“We have been working tirelessly for years to ensure that the federal government finishes the pumps, and today I want to celebrate a serious victory. A delegation from the EPA, Interior, and Army said today that they will be releasing a plan to mitigate the flooding in the Mississippi Delta which, as of now, includes the pump that we have been fighting for,” the statement read. “I don’t need to tell Mississippi what this means for the Delta and for Mississippi. Once it’s implemented, this plan will be a big victory for Mississippians.”

Video with Finish the Pumps after the meeting

The Finish the Pumps group was at the meeting and spoke with the Vicksburg Daily News in a video report

A little background

The proposal of the Yazoo Backwater Pump Project was aimed at mitigating the problem of flooding in the region. The project involves the construction of a pumping station and pumps to redirect floodwaters from the Yazoo River to the Mississippi River during periods of high water. Although first proposed in the 1940s, the project has faced considerable opposition from local communities and environmental groups.

The Flood Control Act of 1928 was passed by Congress after the Great Flood of 1927, recognizing the federal responsibility to address flooding resulting from the Mississippi River. This was due to the fact that 41% of the land area of the continental United States drains into the river, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The Act authorized the Mississippi River & Tributaries Project (MR&T), which aimed to build levees, floodwalls, floodways, channel improvements, and tributary basin improvements.

However, in 1936, it was discovered that some of the levee construction work had inadvertently obstructed drainage outlets for interior basins. As a result, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1936, which extended the federal responsibility to include many river basins that feed into the Mississippi River, including the Yazoo Basin.

Ann Dahl speaks at the meeting. Photo by David Day

In 1941, the Eudora Floodway was removed from the Mississippi River & Tributaries (MR&T) Project at the request of the Arkansas delegation. However, this action would lead to flooding in previously safe areas of the Mississippi Delta since the mouth of the Yazoo River would experience higher stages on the Mississippi River. To address this issue, the Flood Control Act of 1941 authorized the Yazoo Backwater Project, which involved constructing a combination of levees, drainage structures, and pumps to protect the Delta area of Mississippi.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the project in 2008, but it was later halted by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009 due to concerns about the impact on wetlands and wildlife. It has been the subject of ongoing legal battles.

Governor Reeves

Reeves also gave praise to the local community for their vigilance in ensuring the Yazoo Pump Project issue was addressed.

“I want to make one thing crystal clear: this accomplishment, the fact that the federal government has agreed to re-examine the flooding and what can be done to stop it, is because of the folks in the Mississippi Delta. Over the years those in the Mississippi Delta have consistently raised their voice and shared their concerns. They spoke up, and today we are seeing what happens when you do. To everyone in the Delta, I’m so proud of you, our state is proud of you. Thank you for being the catalyst for making today possible,” Reeve’s statement read.

Delta farmer Clay Adcock speaks at the meeting. Photo by David Day

The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta is bordered by the Mississippi River to the west and the bluff hills from south of Memphis, TN to Greenwood, and then the Yazoo River to its outfall into the Mississippi River north of Vicksburg. It stretches approximately 200 miles in length and 60 miles in width.

The Yazoo Backwater Area, also known as the “South Delta,” encompasses around 1,550 square miles of alluvial valley in the lower Yazoo Basin of Mississippi. It lies south of the line between Hollandale and Belzoni, east of the Mainline Mississippi River Levee, and west of the Yazoo River Levee.

Advocates of the project argue that it is necessary to protect homes, businesses, and infrastructure in the region from flooding. Opponents, on the other hand, claim that it would have a significant negative impact on the environment and wildlife in the area.

Opposition

Jill Mastrototaro with Audubon Mississippi and Louie Miller with the Sierra Club attended the meeting but did not speak during an open question period.

“It’s still an Ag drainage project, it’s not a flood control project,” said Miller. “I think that is important to recognize because it’s been sold as a flood control project.”

“I think its important to understand that there are much cheaper and affordable ways to do things, such as what the Brunswick levee was,” continued Miller. “Less than $76,000 going to protect 216 homes in the Eagle Lake area.”

“My point being the Corps likes to build big stuff and we’re back on that crap again and that’s not what the Biden administration pledged to do,” said Miller. “One thing that disturbs me is the demographics in this room. You’re looking at Issaqueena and Sharkey County with the most impact. I heard nothing about how they were going to address those people’s concerns and needs, get money on the ground to provide those people with some relief. Didn’t hear that. I counted 5 African Americans in the rooms, most of the people seem to be farmers, and that’s fine. I don’t think this is something that has been, uh, I don’t think is something that has, it, what it looks like is politics is driving this more than what the concerns and needs are on the ground; to build a big project. Put a lot of money into building behemoth projects. It, as we heard it’s going to be, uh, what’s going to be driving how they manage the flood is going to be farming. So it’s not flood control, it’s certainly not environmental.”

Louie Miller and Jill Mastrototaro sit behind State Senator Briggs Hopson at the meeting. Photo by David Day

Audubon Mississippi

Mastrototaro responded to a question about the EPA saying they were committed to the science, she said, “I think you heard a lot of maybes, we’re still researching and trying to figure it out. And so what we’ve heard today is very thin on details, very thin on kind of the real technical substance of what the concerns, particularly from the environmental community have been thus far. But at the same time its been very thin on the people benefits, particularly the black community members that have endured a lot of hardship. That’s just been, you know, double, you know, the impact with the tornado. So, all this water has to go somewhere. What I heard from some of the most strongest pump proponents today, we’re glad you’re talking a pump, but, it’s not going to pump enough water. We’re talking about a pump that’s now 78% bigger than the last iteration. So, you’re not going to pump the South Delta dry. This is one of the richest Alluvial Valleys. That is why it’s hemispherically significant wetlands. That’s why the EPA stepped off with the veto. And, when you’re talking pumping 25,000 cubic feet a second of water it’s going to go downstream to an already at flood stage Yazoo River and to North Vicksburg Communities that are predominantly black that already frequently flood. And we’re just moving the problem on to somebody else. And that’s unacceptable, especially when you’re talking about environmental justice. And that is something this administration has been committed to. It’s been committed to conservation and climate and that is not what was reflected in what was presented today because there weren’t any details. But we’re going to figure it out.”

We want agriculture

“It’s called adaptive management, the Corps loves adaptive management,” continued Mastrototaro. “That means were going to build something while we figure out all the details and what those true impacts are to the people, to the resources, to the economy. And that is what our organizations have stood by through the history of the South Delta saga. So we’re really going to focus on ensuring that the federal programs, FEMA, which we didn’t hear about today, by the way. We were supposed to. FEMA and USDA and DOT and HUD, that have the technical wherewithal. They’re there, ready-made to get the money to people on the ground that need it the most and we didn’t really hear much of any of that. We just heard that, well, there might be twenty-four people, twenty-four primary residences now that were impacted. There was 687, 78, what, structures from the 2019 flood. There was no talk about who was going to be flood free from this project. A lot of talk about agriculture. We want agriculture in our state. It’s a huge important pillar of our economy. But these pumps clearly aren’t going to help. If you’ve got major pump proponents that are raising really valid questions about well we need another 10-13 inches of water pulled off us beside the 25,000 cubic feet per second pump that’s 78% larger than what’s been put on the table in the past. You can’t square that.”

Tracy Hardin speaks at the meeting. Photo by David Day

Sierra Club says

Miller continued, saying, “There was this hearing the past week before the appropriations, US Senate Appropriations committee where Cindy Hyde-Smith testified that Speldon, who’s the top General, Mike Conner was there, they all spoke about the backwater levee, that it almost got over the top in 2019. So the question is, so, you know, so now you’re gonna, and that was without, without, the pump pumping 14,000 cubic feet or in this case 25,000 cubic feet per second of water. So, where’s the modeling, the support what that is going to do, and not do to downstream, such as the poor communities? All those communities along old Washington Avenue down there that suffered and continue to suffer flooding. A lot of them have been elevated, I was driving through there two days ago looking at the area. So those people, uh, you know, that’s not a protected area, there’s nothing protected in that area. So, the waters gotta go somewhere. And when you’re pumping it into the Yazoo River at flood stage and that area down there is already prone to flooding, you know, are we moving the flooding downstream? That has not been addressed in anything we saw today. I didn’t hear the word environmental justice. I didn’t the word about downstream flooding modeling or any of these other things that I think are critical. Instead of this one-off idea that, okay, we’ve had enough political pressure put on us. We’re gonna horse trade with Roger Wicker on posts[?] and whatever else may be happening behind the scenes to appease.”

Mastrotaro interjects, “I think one of the interesting elements, just having done a lot of work in coastal Mississippi, you know, obviously we want our federal agencies to be working with state, locals etcetera, but they’re talking about developing these water management plan, something on paper that will enter the playbook. Well how did that work with the Bonnet-Carre? Ask the state of Mississippi how that water control structure, which is supposed to be kind of the artery for protecting New Orleans work for the state of Mississippi. And the fisher folk will of course say, we have no oysters left in our Mississippi Sound. So, there’s really, you know,  a lot of things that sound good on the surface but once you dig into the merits and try to get the details, it’s thin on details. It’s going to be a very short arbitrary timeline that they’ve imposed on themselves to get this put together in a few weeks. And a lot of questions are unanswered.”

Mike Conner, Assistant Secretary of the Army. Photo by David Day

It’s just the beginning of the end

The information from the meetings will be taken into consideration and the Corps will compile the feedback and revise the preferred approach. On June 30, USACE will deliver the final preferred approach to addressing the backwater flood situation. From there the preferred approach will work its way through the legalities and bureaucracy.

When asked, no one on the dias or front table would offer an estimate of when the project will start.

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Joey Fogas assisted with writing this article.