Mississippi south Delta farmers and residents are one-step closer to releasing the breath they have been holding for a long time. In January, former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the blessing of the proposed Yazoo Backwater Pump Project and determined it was not subject to the EPA 2008 Final Determination, which vetoed a similar project.
In nine of the past 10 years, the Yazoo Backwater Area experienced significant flooding, threatening the lives and property of people in the region.
“Finding a long-term solution to the flooding of the Yazoo Backwater Area will allow the impacted community and environment to prosper and grow,” Wheeler says. “EPA stands ready to continue to work with the U.S. Army Corps, the entire Mississippi congressional delegation and countless local officials and community groups who are committed to finally finishing this important work.”
Forty-one percent of the continental United States drains down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. Because of this, Congress issued the Yazoo Backwater Project in the Flood Control Act of 1941. The plans for the Yazoo Backwater Project included four major components – levees, a connecting channel, drainage structures and pumps – be completed to protect the land along the Mississippi River in the south Delta.
Since issuing the Yazoo Backwater Project plans, the levees, connecting channel and drainage structures were completed, but the pumps were not installed. In 2008, the EPA vetoed the Yazoo Backwater Pump Project under the authority of the Waters of the United States Rule, halting any proceedings to install the pumps.
Since then, farmers, ranchers and residents of the area have been fighting to keep their communities viable despite constant flooding caused by the lack of the pumps.
“This announcement has been a long time coming, and I am so proud Farm Bureau had a part in it,” Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation Mike McCormick says. “We are looking forward to seeing the pumps finished so that the people of the South Delta can prosper.”
In May 2020, EPA accepted the USACE request to act as a cooperating agency as the agency worked to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Yazoo Backwater Area Pumps Project. The agency participated in two cooperating agency meetings with USACE that focused on new data and assessment protocols. As a cooperating agency, EPA submitted comments on USACE’s SEIS on November 30, 2020.
In December 2020, the USACE submitted an SEIS that would move the pumps from the Steele Bayou area to the Deer Creek area.
“Environmental protection is a shared responsibility, and EPA Region 4 enjoys the strong relationships we have built with our partners in Mississippi to advance this goal,” EPA Regional Administrator Mary Walker says. “From our support of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ efforts to address devastating flooding to our work with the Mississippi Farm Bureau to advance sustainable agriculture, EPA works diligently every day to ensure a cleaner, healthier environment for all in Mississippi.”
“The proud people of the South Delta are forgotten no more,” EPA Chief of Staff and native Mississippian Mandy Gunasekara says. “The collective efforts of this community alongside new information has allowed the US EPA to move the pumps project forward, which once complete will provide overdue protections for the local people, environment, and wildlife.”
Once funding is in place and final planning is complete, the project will take approximately four years to finish.