DEAR FRIENDS:
Heavy Rainfall this week has brought the river up. The best time to get out & paddle the Sunflower!!!!
Friday, Saturday and Sunday Dec 12-14th will be some beautiful paddling through downtown Clarksdale, and upstream & downstream as well. North wind Friday, SE wind Saturday & Sunday. Highs in the 40s. Do your own paddling & shuttling or we can provide canoes, kayaks and shuttle service. See below.
What are the options?
Clark Park to Sunflower Landing (3 miles)
Leisurely 3 mile paddle into downtown Clarksdale through some of the woods & neighborhoods north of town. Owls & beavers. Paddle through the cypress, oaks & sycamores of the Duck Walk. You’ve never seen downtown until you’ve seen it from the river!
Put-in at Clark Park
(Lee Drive & Friars Point Road)
Take out at Sunflower Landing
(Public Parking just downstream of 2nd Street Bridge)
Clover Hill to Sunflower Landing (10 miles)
10 miles. 3-4 hours of paddling. Wild & remote-feeling. Great views of Coahoma County as it used to look. Paddle through woods & fields for miles and not see anyone. No people or buildings until you get close to Clarksdale. Lots of deer, ducks, owls, hawks, and migrating birds.
Put in at bridge near Clover Hill
(turn off Friars Point Road at Kenoy’s and go East half mile on Farrell-Eagle’s Nest Road. Park on SE side of the 2nd Bridge. Put in below bridge.
Take out at Sunflower Landing
(Public Parking just downstream of 2nd Street Bridge)
Sunflower Landing to Hopson (6 miles)
6 miles. 2-3 hours of paddling. Leave downtown Clarksdale and paddle under the Railroad Bridge behind Delta Wholesale Hardware, Red’s Juke Joint, the Riverside Hotel, 61 Highway – you will see why the Sunflower River has the blues! The river alternates between short narrow passages with clogged channels through submerged trees and long pools bordered by big trees and wide fields. The banks are thick with hawks, owls & deer.
Put in Sunflower Landing
(Public Parking just downstream of 2nd Street Bridge)
Take out at Hopson Bridge
Rental & Shuttle Rates
Canoe Rental: $35/day with paddles & life jackets for 2 people
Kayak Rental: $35/day with kayak paddle, life jacket, and kayak rescue gear
Shuttle Rates (per person with canoes & kayaks):
Sunflower Landing – Clark Park: $15
Sunflower Landing – Clover Hill: $25
Sunflower Landing – Hopson: $25
20% off for Friends of the Sunflower River in current good standing!!!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Friday, February 1, 2008
2nd Annual General Membership Meeting
Please mark your calendars: Friday, February 15th, 6pm, Quapaw Canoe Company, 291 Sunflower Avenue, 2nd Annual General Membership Meeting of the Friends of the Sunflower River. $25 (Min.) Membership fee for 2008 due on or before meeting. See below for more information. Our only expenses in the past 2 years have been $65 in postage & a $20 water quality testing kit from World Water Monitoring Day (good for 30 tests).
Upcoming expenses: A high quality water-testing station so that we can begin a database for the Sunflower's water quality. Also, an online subscription to the Delta Democrat Times, which has been carrying a lot fo stories about the Yazoo Pumps (as well as other matters concerning the Big Sunflower in the Lower Delta). Also, maybe a subscription to the Deer Creek Pilot. Does anyone have an objection?
Why join the friends? Because the river needs us!
2008 will see us knee deep in the mud (hip deep in the water) cleaning up the river in downtown Clarksdale. Also, we have been coordinating a water quality workshop with MDEQ (Mississippi Dept. of Environmental Quality) sometime this Spring/Summer.
The illustrious Mike Clark and I will be paddling downstream the last 2 weeks of Feb, continuing the annual Sunflower River Expedition. And you can paddle with us and help us document its dark muddy mysteries. Contact me for more info. If you can't paddle with us, your membership ensures that you receive the whole story & photos from the adventure along the way! (sent to you via this e-list).
And lastly, your membership entitles you to a 25% discount in canoe rentals and shuttles from Quapaw Canoe Co. to get out & enjoy our mysterious muddy waterway yourself, this deal good only on the Sunflower River. We have a special set of canoes, paddles & lifejackets made for the slippery banks and many log jams encountered on the Sunflower River. Bring your own snake repellant! We will drop you off and pick you up. Shuttles provided by none other than Welsey Jefferson, who you probably know better as "the Mississippi Junebug" when he's playing bass & singing on stage at Red's, Ground Zero, and other jukes & festivals in the area.
Make out your check to "Friends of the Sunflower River" and bring to the meeting on Feb 15th, or send to:
John Ruskey
Friends of the Sunflower River
291 Sunflower Avenue
Clarksdale, MS 38614
-------------------------cut here and mail -----------------------------
Yes! I want to _____ join or ____ renew my membership with Friends of the Sunflower River to help care for the muddy river we call home. Please find enclosed my $25 check:
Name: __________________________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________
Telephone_____________________Email_____________________________
___add me to the mailing list for (infrequent) updates on the river, photos, stories, news items, the annual Sunflower River Expedition, etc.
___ Please send information about Friends of the Sunflower River to my friends/family/loved ones:
___ I am particularly interested in the following activities in connection with Friends of the Sunflower River:
___ Other:
------------------------cut here and mail -----------------------------
Who Are We?
Friends of the Sunflower River is all about appreciating and caring for the lonely little river that winds its way through the center of the Mississippi Delta, from Friars Point to Clarksdale, from Mound Bayou & Merigold to Sunflower; from Indianola to Anguilla, from Holly Bluff to Vicksburg.
This river has the blues! Besides the many blues & gospel musicians who were born & baptized along its banks, its mussel shell beds (which are reported to be the richest such biota in the world) seem to be in constant danger of overzealous engineering. The Sunflower River has been neglected and over-worked; so much that it was proclaimed America’s “Most Endangered River” in 2003.
The good news is that its forests constitute the largest bottomland hardwood forests in the National Forest system (they also produce the highest carbon-sequestration of any forests in North America!), and its banks are home to every creature winged, webbed or otherwise, found native to the Mississippi Delta. It’s a beautiful place to get away, to reflect a moment on the rivers and woods of America, to walk along its banks, to paddle its waters, to enjoy its scenery. Most importantly, its home to all of us who live on or near its banks, and second home to many others who love it from a distance. Shouldn’t we be taking better care of our lonely muddy river?
Physical Description: The Sunflower River is born in the bayous and lakes of Northern Coahoma County and meanders South some 250 miles through the Yazoo/Mississippi Delta paralleling the Mississippi River on the West and the Yazoo on the East, (with which it confluences with 10 miles above Vicksburg). A small but dynamic river, once forested, now mostly bordered by fields, the Sunflower is a rich habitat for all creatures native to the region, including black bear and panther. Its muddy current averages 2100 cfs (cubic feet per second) at Sunflower, 3461 at the mouth of Bogue Phalia, and approximately 4500 where it empties into the Yazoo River at Steele Bayou. Its drainage includes most or all of Coahoma, Bolivar, Sunflower, Washington, Sharkey & Issaquena Counties, some 3,689 square miles, inhabited by 169,150 people.
Cultural/Historical Mélange: In its journey through the Delta, the Sunflower winds through the layers of mud and history that gave the world its first great blues singer (Charlie Patton, Dockery Plantation), the first mechanized cotton picker (Hopson Plantation), its oldest African-American founded community (Mound Bayou), rural Civil Rights era leaders (Fanny Lou Hamer, Sunflower County; Aaron Henry, Clarksdale), the Teddy Bear (Delta National Forest), King of the Chicago Blues (Muddy Waters, born in Rolling Fork, lived 25 years at Stovall) and the renowned ambassador of the blues (B.B. King, Indianola). The Rev. C.L. Franklin (Aretha’s Father) is just one of many who were baptized in her muddy waters. Bessie Smith died at the G.T. Thomas Hospital which sits on her banks in Clarksdale (now the Riverside Hotel). Today you can hear live blues along the river at juke joints Red’s and Sarah’s Kitchen. Legendary woodsman, Holt Collier (1846-1936), who cornered the Teddy Bear, reported its waters to run clear & clean, and Roosevelt started each day of the hunt with a cold-water swim. One of our long-term objectives is to make the waters safe once again for fishing and swimming.
Mission Statement: The Friends of the Sunflower River was established in 2006 to bring attention, understanding and care to the Big Sunflower River and its tributaries, The Little Sunflower, the Bogue Phalia, Mound Bayou, Indian Bayou, The Quiver River, Silver Creek, Deer Creek, Rolling Fork, Steele Bayou and the Hushpuckena River.
Board of Directors: Five members: Executive Director, Assistant Director, Secretary, Treasurer, and Attorney; to meet quarterly to discuss ideas, activities and any items concerning the health of the Big Sunflower River.
Honorary Directors: to meet annually with Board of Directors for participation in long-range planning and organizational philosophy.
Annual Membership Meeting: to be set annually by Board of Directors.
Goals: We, the members of the Sunflower River, are committed to a clean-flowing Sunflower River that provides sustainable habitat for the humans, animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish that are found native to the Mississippi Delta. We dedicate ourselves to protect and restore its aquatic environment. We strive to supplement the current body of knowledge with observations, recordings and documentation of animal movement, water quality, soil quality, and other concerns of the natural science of the Mississippi Delta.
Activities: involve understanding and enjoyment of the Sunflower River and its riparian environment: paddling, clean-up, water-quality monitoring, animal tracking, bird watching, crustacean counts, amphibian and insect observations.
Membership: You can become a charter member of our fledgling organization to help us appreciate and take care of this lonely little river that winds its way through the center of the Mississippi Delta. $25/year basic membership.
Upcoming expenses: A high quality water-testing station so that we can begin a database for the Sunflower's water quality. Also, an online subscription to the Delta Democrat Times, which has been carrying a lot fo stories about the Yazoo Pumps (as well as other matters concerning the Big Sunflower in the Lower Delta). Also, maybe a subscription to the Deer Creek Pilot. Does anyone have an objection?
Why join the friends? Because the river needs us!
2008 will see us knee deep in the mud (hip deep in the water) cleaning up the river in downtown Clarksdale. Also, we have been coordinating a water quality workshop with MDEQ (Mississippi Dept. of Environmental Quality) sometime this Spring/Summer.
The illustrious Mike Clark and I will be paddling downstream the last 2 weeks of Feb, continuing the annual Sunflower River Expedition. And you can paddle with us and help us document its dark muddy mysteries. Contact me for more info. If you can't paddle with us, your membership ensures that you receive the whole story & photos from the adventure along the way! (sent to you via this e-list).
And lastly, your membership entitles you to a 25% discount in canoe rentals and shuttles from Quapaw Canoe Co. to get out & enjoy our mysterious muddy waterway yourself, this deal good only on the Sunflower River. We have a special set of canoes, paddles & lifejackets made for the slippery banks and many log jams encountered on the Sunflower River. Bring your own snake repellant! We will drop you off and pick you up. Shuttles provided by none other than Welsey Jefferson, who you probably know better as "the Mississippi Junebug" when he's playing bass & singing on stage at Red's, Ground Zero, and other jukes & festivals in the area.
Make out your check to "Friends of the Sunflower River" and bring to the meeting on Feb 15th, or send to:
John Ruskey
Friends of the Sunflower River
291 Sunflower Avenue
Clarksdale, MS 38614
-------------------------cut here and mail -----------------------------
Yes! I want to _____ join or ____ renew my membership with Friends of the Sunflower River to help care for the muddy river we call home. Please find enclosed my $25 check:
Name: __________________________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________
Telephone_____________________Email_____________________________
___add me to the mailing list for (infrequent) updates on the river, photos, stories, news items, the annual Sunflower River Expedition, etc.
___ Please send information about Friends of the Sunflower River to my friends/family/loved ones:
___ I am particularly interested in the following activities in connection with Friends of the Sunflower River:
___ Other:
------------------------cut here and mail -----------------------------
Who Are We?
Friends of the Sunflower River is all about appreciating and caring for the lonely little river that winds its way through the center of the Mississippi Delta, from Friars Point to Clarksdale, from Mound Bayou & Merigold to Sunflower; from Indianola to Anguilla, from Holly Bluff to Vicksburg.
This river has the blues! Besides the many blues & gospel musicians who were born & baptized along its banks, its mussel shell beds (which are reported to be the richest such biota in the world) seem to be in constant danger of overzealous engineering. The Sunflower River has been neglected and over-worked; so much that it was proclaimed America’s “Most Endangered River” in 2003.
The good news is that its forests constitute the largest bottomland hardwood forests in the National Forest system (they also produce the highest carbon-sequestration of any forests in North America!), and its banks are home to every creature winged, webbed or otherwise, found native to the Mississippi Delta. It’s a beautiful place to get away, to reflect a moment on the rivers and woods of America, to walk along its banks, to paddle its waters, to enjoy its scenery. Most importantly, its home to all of us who live on or near its banks, and second home to many others who love it from a distance. Shouldn’t we be taking better care of our lonely muddy river?
Physical Description: The Sunflower River is born in the bayous and lakes of Northern Coahoma County and meanders South some 250 miles through the Yazoo/Mississippi Delta paralleling the Mississippi River on the West and the Yazoo on the East, (with which it confluences with 10 miles above Vicksburg). A small but dynamic river, once forested, now mostly bordered by fields, the Sunflower is a rich habitat for all creatures native to the region, including black bear and panther. Its muddy current averages 2100 cfs (cubic feet per second) at Sunflower, 3461 at the mouth of Bogue Phalia, and approximately 4500 where it empties into the Yazoo River at Steele Bayou. Its drainage includes most or all of Coahoma, Bolivar, Sunflower, Washington, Sharkey & Issaquena Counties, some 3,689 square miles, inhabited by 169,150 people.
Cultural/Historical Mélange: In its journey through the Delta, the Sunflower winds through the layers of mud and history that gave the world its first great blues singer (Charlie Patton, Dockery Plantation), the first mechanized cotton picker (Hopson Plantation), its oldest African-American founded community (Mound Bayou), rural Civil Rights era leaders (Fanny Lou Hamer, Sunflower County; Aaron Henry, Clarksdale), the Teddy Bear (Delta National Forest), King of the Chicago Blues (Muddy Waters, born in Rolling Fork, lived 25 years at Stovall) and the renowned ambassador of the blues (B.B. King, Indianola). The Rev. C.L. Franklin (Aretha’s Father) is just one of many who were baptized in her muddy waters. Bessie Smith died at the G.T. Thomas Hospital which sits on her banks in Clarksdale (now the Riverside Hotel). Today you can hear live blues along the river at juke joints Red’s and Sarah’s Kitchen. Legendary woodsman, Holt Collier (1846-1936), who cornered the Teddy Bear, reported its waters to run clear & clean, and Roosevelt started each day of the hunt with a cold-water swim. One of our long-term objectives is to make the waters safe once again for fishing and swimming.
Mission Statement: The Friends of the Sunflower River was established in 2006 to bring attention, understanding and care to the Big Sunflower River and its tributaries, The Little Sunflower, the Bogue Phalia, Mound Bayou, Indian Bayou, The Quiver River, Silver Creek, Deer Creek, Rolling Fork, Steele Bayou and the Hushpuckena River.
Board of Directors: Five members: Executive Director, Assistant Director, Secretary, Treasurer, and Attorney; to meet quarterly to discuss ideas, activities and any items concerning the health of the Big Sunflower River.
Honorary Directors: to meet annually with Board of Directors for participation in long-range planning and organizational philosophy.
Annual Membership Meeting: to be set annually by Board of Directors.
Goals: We, the members of the Sunflower River, are committed to a clean-flowing Sunflower River that provides sustainable habitat for the humans, animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish that are found native to the Mississippi Delta. We dedicate ourselves to protect and restore its aquatic environment. We strive to supplement the current body of knowledge with observations, recordings and documentation of animal movement, water quality, soil quality, and other concerns of the natural science of the Mississippi Delta.
Activities: involve understanding and enjoyment of the Sunflower River and its riparian environment: paddling, clean-up, water-quality monitoring, animal tracking, bird watching, crustacean counts, amphibian and insect observations.
Membership: You can become a charter member of our fledgling organization to help us appreciate and take care of this lonely little river that winds its way through the center of the Mississippi Delta. $25/year basic membership.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
get off yer muddy stumps!
All ye river Chumps
get off yer muddy stumps
and write these grumps
to Dump the Pumps!
Dear Friends of the Sunflower River:
See below for complete list of addresses to individuals involved in the decision-making process for final approval of the Yazoo Pumps.
Please consider writing a letter to each of the following to halt the construction of the Yazoo Pumps. Our friends with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oppose this project. At the very least, this project needs a scientific assessment from an independent group. Compose your own letters, or if you want to save time, American Rivers makes it easy for you, go to their website and click on board, personalize one letter and they take care of all necessary addresses & delivery. www.americanrivers.org.
The report comment period will be open to the public until January 22, 2008. The EPA has the power to veto this project under Clean Water Act section 404(c), and the president can direct the White House's Counsel on Environmental Quality to ensure that it’s never built.
Mr. James Connaughton
Chairman, Council on Environmental Quality
722 Jackson Place, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20503chairman@ceq.eop.gov
Mr. Stephen Johnson
Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyAriel Rios Building1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20460
Yazoo_Project@epa.gov
Mr. Dirk Kempthorne
Secretary, US Department of Interior1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240webteam@ios.doi.gov
Marvin Cannon
Vicksburg District of the US Army Corps of Engineers
4155 Clay Street
Vicksburg, MS 39183-3435
Yazoobackwater@usace.army.mil
Colonel Michael C. Wehr, District Engineer
Vicksburg District of the US Army Corps of Engineers
4155 Clay Street
Vicksburg, MS 39183-3435
Yazoobackwater@usace.army.mil
get off yer muddy stumps
and write these grumps
to Dump the Pumps!
Dear Friends of the Sunflower River:
See below for complete list of addresses to individuals involved in the decision-making process for final approval of the Yazoo Pumps.
Please consider writing a letter to each of the following to halt the construction of the Yazoo Pumps. Our friends with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oppose this project. At the very least, this project needs a scientific assessment from an independent group. Compose your own letters, or if you want to save time, American Rivers makes it easy for you, go to their website and click on board, personalize one letter and they take care of all necessary addresses & delivery. www.americanrivers.org.
The report comment period will be open to the public until January 22, 2008. The EPA has the power to veto this project under Clean Water Act section 404(c), and the president can direct the White House's Counsel on Environmental Quality to ensure that it’s never built.
Mr. James Connaughton
Chairman, Council on Environmental Quality
722 Jackson Place, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20503chairman@ceq.eop.gov
Mr. Stephen Johnson
Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyAriel Rios Building1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20460
Yazoo_Project@epa.gov
Mr. Dirk Kempthorne
Secretary, US Department of Interior1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240webteam@ios.doi.gov
Marvin Cannon
Vicksburg District of the US Army Corps of Engineers
4155 Clay Street
Vicksburg, MS 39183-3435
Yazoobackwater@usace.army.mil
Colonel Michael C. Wehr, District Engineer
Vicksburg District of the US Army Corps of Engineers
4155 Clay Street
Vicksburg, MS 39183-3435
Yazoobackwater@usace.army.mil
pumps press
Issaquena County 12/11/07Wildlife Endangered by Yazoo Pumps Project?
by Jon Kalaharjkalahar@wlbt.net
A proposed project 65 years in the making from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is once again upsetting national wildlife and conservation groups.
The Yazoo Backwater Project is designed to reducing flooding in the south delta area between Rolling Fork and Vicksburg. But opponents say it will just destroy a wetland habitat for many fish and wildlife, including the Louisiana black bear.
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership says black bears are using the south delta as a breeding ground, and cubs are becoming more and more common in Issaquena County. But they say it's that same area that will be damaged by the Yazoo Backwater Project.
The Army Corps of Engineers disagrees. "The report analyzed the impact to wetland terrestrial, aquatics, and waterfowl, and basically with the total project, you have a benefit to all those categories," said senior project manager, Kent Parrish.
The "Yazoo Pumps" are designed to remove flood waters in the south delta caused by back up from the Mississippi River. Something Parrish says happens almost every spring. Over 200,000 acres will be affected at a cost of $220 million.
Conservation officials are adamant about protecting the area, but the Army Corps of Engineers says that's their goal as well.
A revised plan has raised the pumping elevation, meaning the water has to be higher before they turn on the pumps. The Corps of Engineers will also go back after completion and re-forest over 55,000 acres.
"We see a win all the way around. The Vicksburg district went to army headquarters and asked for permission to deviate from the national economic development plan to give more benefits to the environment," said Parrish.
Conservationists are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House to veto the project which would stop it in its tracks.
The public comment portion of the project will finish on January 22nd. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will then submit its final report to the Mississippi River Commission for its approval. No date is set to begin the project.
January 6, 2008
December 12, 2007
Yazoo Pumps' impact debatedCorps of Engineers moving forward despite flood of oppositionChris Joynerchris.joyner@jackson.gannett.com
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving forward with plans to build a $220 million pumping station in the Yazoo River Basin despite opposition from conservationists and even other federal agencies.
"We could easily nominate it for the boondoggle of the millennium," Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said of the project. "It makes no environmental or economic sense."
The Yazoo Backwater Project, also known as the Yazoo Pumps, is a project to control flooding in a six-county area in west-central Mississippi by draining wetlands via a massive pumping station in the Yazoo River basin. The project has been on the federal drawing board since 1941 as part of the federal government's approach to flood control in a lower Mississippi Delta.
In 2000, when the project was last proposed, environmentalists panned the pump project for its potential impact on 200,000 acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat.
A federally commissioned economic impact study at the time found building costs far outweighed the financial benefit the impoverished region might realize.
The Environmental Protection Agency warned the corps the plan was ripe for veto, sending the pump project back to the drawing board.
Now corps officials say they have answered those concerns in a new environmental impact statement. The revised Yazoo Backwater Project includes reforestation efforts and new habitat set-asides that will improve habitat for some species like the Louisiana black bear, said senior project manager Kent Parrish.
The new plan will drain 26,300 acres of wetlands and return $1.40 in economic benefit for every dollar spent on the project, he said.
If it receives final federal approval, construction of the pumps project could begin as early as late 2008.
The corps took nearly a decade to produce the 2000 report. Parrish said, "We spent another seven years trying to get it right."
The new plan balances environmental concerns with flood protection, he said.
But this week more than 500 environmental biologists, researchers and professors sent a joint letter to the heads of the EPA and the Interior Department urging them to "take all steps necessary" to kill the project.
"Wetland losses at this scale would have catastrophic implications for the ecology of the region and for the fish and wildlife resources entrusted to the care of the Department of the Interior," the letter states. "The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley has already lost 80 percent of its original wetlands. The majority of those losses have been traced directly to the effects of federal flood control and drainage projects."
Conservationists say the corps has understated the environmental costs of the revised pump project and the effect it will have on the areas set aside as wildlife refuges.
"They take economies with the truth," said Theodore Roosevelt IV, a conservationist and great-grandson of President Roosevelt. "This project will destroy wildlife habitat and especially habitat that the Louisiana black bear thrives in."
The project is slated for the same area of the state President Roosevelt made famous in 1902 when, while on a hunt, he refused to shoot a captive black bear. The famous story became the impetus for the Teddy bear toy.
But the Roosevelts are not the only family with fond connections to the region. Madison resident William Watkins, 57, said he has hunted in the area since he was a boy.
"I was a teenager when my uncle took me there for the first time. It's just fantastic," he said.
Today he takes his own son hunting at the Eagle Lake area north of Vicksburg.
"The only reason we get to hunt over there is because of the backwater," he said. "It makes no sense. We'd be better off giving $220 million to the Corps of Engineers to leave us alone."
Corps officials insist the project will not adversely impact the ecology of the region, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not convinced.
"We're concerned that the negative impacts of this project on fish and wildlife is larger than the corps acknowledges," said Tom Mackenzie, spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service. "The corps has not fully evaluated the extent of the negative impacts to wetlands that are crucial to support the diversity of fish and wildlife that depend on them. Further, they've also not fully addressed the negative impact to fish and wildlife throughout the Yazoo basin."
While supporters of the project say the Yazoo Pumps will be an economic boom to the mid-Delta counties, MacKenzie said the damage to the environment may be more significant to the country.
"It's our job to ensure the wildlife environment is protected. These resources belong to all of us," he said.
With resistance to the project mounting, this version of the Yazoo Pumps project faces an uphill battle in Washington.
One of the project's chief defenders, Republican Sen. Trent Lott, is retiring at the end of the year.
Lott spokesman Lee Youngblood said the senator hopes his replacement will be an advocate for the project. Those opposing the pumps do not have the best interests of Mississippians at heart, he said.
"Sen. Lott has always favored flood control projects throughout the state whether it's in (Jackson) with the Pearl River or in the Delta," he said.
Youngblood said the groups opposing the Yazoo Pumps would never be satisfied, no matter what changes the corps made.
"My guess is you won't find too many projects they would support," he said. "My guess is, deep down, they don't want flood control."
December 11, 2007
Delta pump project called ‘boondoggle’Chris Joynerchris.joyner@jackson.gannett.com
Environmental leaders called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to veto a $220 million pump project in the lower Mississippi Delta they said will destroy up to 200,000 acres of wetlands to benefit a handful of wealthy landowners.
"We could easily nominate it for the boondoggle of the millennium," said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. "It makes no environmental or economic sense."The Yazoo Backwater Project, also known as the Yazoo Pumps, is a project to control flooding in a six-county area in west-central Mississippi by draining wetlands via a massive pumping station in the Yazoo River basin. The reclaimed land would be available for agricultural purposes, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is proposing the project, said the real benefit is the added flood protection for residents living in the backwater area.The project has been on the federal drawing board since 1941 but has faced stiff opposition from environmentalists and government scientists who claim the flood control and economic benefits are vastly outweighed by the total cost, both in terms of taxpayer dollars and environmental impact."Our county is facing many complicated environmental problems. This is not one of them," said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers. "The threat posed by the Yazoo pumps can be ended quickly and easily."In its proposal, the Corps of Engineers says environmental damage to wetlands, wildlife habitat and bottomland hardwood will be offset by reforestation and other conservation programs. The project is opposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which disputes the Corps environmental assurances.If it receives final federal approval, construction of the pumps project could begin as early as late 2008
Conservation groups call on EPA to veto Miss. Delta pumps project
Associated Press
Jackson— The National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups called Tuesday for the Environmental Protection Agency to stop a planned $220 million pump project in the lower Mississippi Delta region.Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project would “drain and damage life-sustaining wetlands in Mississippi” and threaten a wide array of fish and wildlife.The Yazoo Backwater Project was authorized by Congress in 1941. It has undergone multiple revisions. The goal is to remove rainwater from the lower Delta that becomes impounded inside levees when the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers are at higher stages.For several decades, installing giant pumps near the confluence of the Yazoo and Steele Bayou, which drains much of the Delta, was the plan. That proposal has been modified.Last month, the Corps defended building the pumps in a crucial environmental report for the Yazoo Backwater Project, a proposal to build a pump station to drain wetlands, farmland and forests north of Vicksburg.The agency says the pumps would reduce flooding by as much as 4 1/2 feet in the region, but critics say the project is emblematic of the Corps’ flawed bureaucratic process that pours money into wasteful projects while urgent needs go unmet. Also, critics say the pumps would destroy up to 200,000 acres of wetlands.The Corps’ final environmental impact statement, the one released in November, is one step toward getting the project under way. The agency now will hold public meetings before handing the report over to top engineers for their approval.Before that happens, though, the project could be torpedoed by the EPA or the White House. The EPA says the pumps would harm the environment and says it might issue a rare veto.The NWF’s Schweiger said a veto is what conservationists want.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and American Rivers, an environmental group, also oppose the project. Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, said the pumps would “damage a staggering amount of wetlands.”Theodore Roosevelt IV, great-grandson of the former president and a New York investment banker, said the pump project threatens the Louisiana black bear, which has returned to the region.The Louisiana black bear is a subspecies of the American black bear and is considered threatened.Roosevelt said it was the black bear that brought his great-grandfather to Sharkey County, Miss., for a hunt. Roosevelt said the teddy bear’s creation resulted from that trip — the accidental combination of a tethered bear in a Mississippi woods, news stories about the president’s refusal to shoot it, and a cartoonist’s eye for an arresting image.Roosevelt said the region remains a treasured location for sportsmen and lies in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway, a migration route for waterfowl.“We know that one of the single damaging effect on wildlife is destruction to habitat, specially habitat that the Louisiana black bear thrives in,” he said.On the Net:National Wildlife Federation, http://www.nwf.orgCorps of Engineers, http://www.usace.army.milAmerican Rivers, http://www.americanrivers.org
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
Delta Democrat Times, Greenville, on “Project still needs thought.”
From one point of view, the Yazoo Backwater Project is a flagrant example of government waste that would destroy wildlife habitat. From another, it’s badly needed, long overdue flood protection.
The truth, we suspect, is somewhere between these extremes.
The National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups called recently for the Environmental Protection Agency to stop the planned $220 million pump project in the lower Mississippi Delta.
Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in a conference call with reporters that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project would “drain and damage life-sustaining wetlands in Mississippi” and threaten a wide array of fish and wildlife.
On the other side are the Corps and some residents of Sharkey and Issaquena counties who support the project. Some of these are people whose lands were flooded in 1973 — the last time the region experienced a major flood. Others are farmers who would get more use out of their lands if the project were completed.
Latest Yazoo Pump project of benefit to allThe Clarion-Ledger
There are more than 40 million hunters and anglers in the United States. I consider sportsmen as the original conservationists. After all, if our forests, waterways and marshlands are taken from us, then we can't enjoy sports that have become a passion for many of us.
As an avid hunter, I like to think that we are responsible for providing habitat for the game we hunt, and for the ecosystems that support game and other wildlife. It is one of the oldest forms of environmental advocacy in North America, owing its existence to men like President Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1902 visited the Mississippi Delta on his famous bear hunt, giving birth to the "Teddy Bear."
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, hunters and anglers currently contribute about $5 million a day from the sale of state hunting and fishing licenses and other activities and contributions to environmental conservation and protection. Hunting and fishing help to foster a relationship to the land that is crucial to future conservation efforts.
While sporting and conservation groups don't always see eye-to-eye on every issue, they often turn to one another as partners because of a common understanding that healthy ecosystems mean healthy habitats for game animals - conserving habitat.
It is for this great shared value that sportsmen, conservationists and others interested in environmental preservation should now show a united front in support of the Yazoo Backwater Pump Project. Much has been said and written about this project since its inception many years ago. But as proposed now, this is modern-day flood control, combining structures that will protect the people, homes and businesses of the south Delta while also enhancing the natural environment of the region.
The project is designed to place 55,600 acres of agricultural land under permanent conservation easements. This land currently offers few natural resource values, but when replanted as bottomland hardwood forest, as proposed, it will provide additional wildlife habitat, water quality benefits and significant environmental improvements.
The results of the reforestation will be an increase in wetlands resources in the region, an increase in terrestrial resources and an increase in aquatic resources. In addition, this reforestation will improve water quality by reducing sediment runoff.
A reforestation initiative of this size will vastly improve the habitat for all wildlife, fish and waterfowl in the south Delta. It'll also provide additional habitat for endangered species like the pondberry plant and Teddy Roosevelt's beloved Louisiana black bear.
No project on the scale of the Yazoo Backwater Pump Project is ever perfect, and nothing of this magnitude can be undertaken without some impact on the environment. But this project has been exhaustively reviewed for many years now, with significant improvements having been made to the original plan, especially in terms of environmental protection and conservation.
The net environmental impacts of this project are beneficial, as illustrated in the Corps of Engineers' Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and other detailed reports from technical experts. We've waited long enough - it is time to provide flood protection for the people who live and work in the south Delta and for the habitat which is degraded by flooding. I strongly urge my fellow hunters, fishermen and conservationists to support the Yazoo Backwater Pump Project. This should be an issue on which we all can agree.
Jim Luckett
Dublin
by Jon Kalaharjkalahar@wlbt.net
A proposed project 65 years in the making from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is once again upsetting national wildlife and conservation groups.
The Yazoo Backwater Project is designed to reducing flooding in the south delta area between Rolling Fork and Vicksburg. But opponents say it will just destroy a wetland habitat for many fish and wildlife, including the Louisiana black bear.
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership says black bears are using the south delta as a breeding ground, and cubs are becoming more and more common in Issaquena County. But they say it's that same area that will be damaged by the Yazoo Backwater Project.
The Army Corps of Engineers disagrees. "The report analyzed the impact to wetland terrestrial, aquatics, and waterfowl, and basically with the total project, you have a benefit to all those categories," said senior project manager, Kent Parrish.
The "Yazoo Pumps" are designed to remove flood waters in the south delta caused by back up from the Mississippi River. Something Parrish says happens almost every spring. Over 200,000 acres will be affected at a cost of $220 million.
Conservation officials are adamant about protecting the area, but the Army Corps of Engineers says that's their goal as well.
A revised plan has raised the pumping elevation, meaning the water has to be higher before they turn on the pumps. The Corps of Engineers will also go back after completion and re-forest over 55,000 acres.
"We see a win all the way around. The Vicksburg district went to army headquarters and asked for permission to deviate from the national economic development plan to give more benefits to the environment," said Parrish.
Conservationists are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House to veto the project which would stop it in its tracks.
The public comment portion of the project will finish on January 22nd. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will then submit its final report to the Mississippi River Commission for its approval. No date is set to begin the project.
January 6, 2008
December 12, 2007
Yazoo Pumps' impact debatedCorps of Engineers moving forward despite flood of oppositionChris Joynerchris.joyner@jackson.gannett.com
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving forward with plans to build a $220 million pumping station in the Yazoo River Basin despite opposition from conservationists and even other federal agencies.
"We could easily nominate it for the boondoggle of the millennium," Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said of the project. "It makes no environmental or economic sense."
The Yazoo Backwater Project, also known as the Yazoo Pumps, is a project to control flooding in a six-county area in west-central Mississippi by draining wetlands via a massive pumping station in the Yazoo River basin. The project has been on the federal drawing board since 1941 as part of the federal government's approach to flood control in a lower Mississippi Delta.
In 2000, when the project was last proposed, environmentalists panned the pump project for its potential impact on 200,000 acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat.
A federally commissioned economic impact study at the time found building costs far outweighed the financial benefit the impoverished region might realize.
The Environmental Protection Agency warned the corps the plan was ripe for veto, sending the pump project back to the drawing board.
Now corps officials say they have answered those concerns in a new environmental impact statement. The revised Yazoo Backwater Project includes reforestation efforts and new habitat set-asides that will improve habitat for some species like the Louisiana black bear, said senior project manager Kent Parrish.
The new plan will drain 26,300 acres of wetlands and return $1.40 in economic benefit for every dollar spent on the project, he said.
If it receives final federal approval, construction of the pumps project could begin as early as late 2008.
The corps took nearly a decade to produce the 2000 report. Parrish said, "We spent another seven years trying to get it right."
The new plan balances environmental concerns with flood protection, he said.
But this week more than 500 environmental biologists, researchers and professors sent a joint letter to the heads of the EPA and the Interior Department urging them to "take all steps necessary" to kill the project.
"Wetland losses at this scale would have catastrophic implications for the ecology of the region and for the fish and wildlife resources entrusted to the care of the Department of the Interior," the letter states. "The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley has already lost 80 percent of its original wetlands. The majority of those losses have been traced directly to the effects of federal flood control and drainage projects."
Conservationists say the corps has understated the environmental costs of the revised pump project and the effect it will have on the areas set aside as wildlife refuges.
"They take economies with the truth," said Theodore Roosevelt IV, a conservationist and great-grandson of President Roosevelt. "This project will destroy wildlife habitat and especially habitat that the Louisiana black bear thrives in."
The project is slated for the same area of the state President Roosevelt made famous in 1902 when, while on a hunt, he refused to shoot a captive black bear. The famous story became the impetus for the Teddy bear toy.
But the Roosevelts are not the only family with fond connections to the region. Madison resident William Watkins, 57, said he has hunted in the area since he was a boy.
"I was a teenager when my uncle took me there for the first time. It's just fantastic," he said.
Today he takes his own son hunting at the Eagle Lake area north of Vicksburg.
"The only reason we get to hunt over there is because of the backwater," he said. "It makes no sense. We'd be better off giving $220 million to the Corps of Engineers to leave us alone."
Corps officials insist the project will not adversely impact the ecology of the region, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not convinced.
"We're concerned that the negative impacts of this project on fish and wildlife is larger than the corps acknowledges," said Tom Mackenzie, spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service. "The corps has not fully evaluated the extent of the negative impacts to wetlands that are crucial to support the diversity of fish and wildlife that depend on them. Further, they've also not fully addressed the negative impact to fish and wildlife throughout the Yazoo basin."
While supporters of the project say the Yazoo Pumps will be an economic boom to the mid-Delta counties, MacKenzie said the damage to the environment may be more significant to the country.
"It's our job to ensure the wildlife environment is protected. These resources belong to all of us," he said.
With resistance to the project mounting, this version of the Yazoo Pumps project faces an uphill battle in Washington.
One of the project's chief defenders, Republican Sen. Trent Lott, is retiring at the end of the year.
Lott spokesman Lee Youngblood said the senator hopes his replacement will be an advocate for the project. Those opposing the pumps do not have the best interests of Mississippians at heart, he said.
"Sen. Lott has always favored flood control projects throughout the state whether it's in (Jackson) with the Pearl River or in the Delta," he said.
Youngblood said the groups opposing the Yazoo Pumps would never be satisfied, no matter what changes the corps made.
"My guess is you won't find too many projects they would support," he said. "My guess is, deep down, they don't want flood control."
December 11, 2007
Delta pump project called ‘boondoggle’Chris Joynerchris.joyner@jackson.gannett.com
Environmental leaders called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to veto a $220 million pump project in the lower Mississippi Delta they said will destroy up to 200,000 acres of wetlands to benefit a handful of wealthy landowners.
"We could easily nominate it for the boondoggle of the millennium," said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. "It makes no environmental or economic sense."The Yazoo Backwater Project, also known as the Yazoo Pumps, is a project to control flooding in a six-county area in west-central Mississippi by draining wetlands via a massive pumping station in the Yazoo River basin. The reclaimed land would be available for agricultural purposes, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is proposing the project, said the real benefit is the added flood protection for residents living in the backwater area.The project has been on the federal drawing board since 1941 but has faced stiff opposition from environmentalists and government scientists who claim the flood control and economic benefits are vastly outweighed by the total cost, both in terms of taxpayer dollars and environmental impact."Our county is facing many complicated environmental problems. This is not one of them," said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers. "The threat posed by the Yazoo pumps can be ended quickly and easily."In its proposal, the Corps of Engineers says environmental damage to wetlands, wildlife habitat and bottomland hardwood will be offset by reforestation and other conservation programs. The project is opposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which disputes the Corps environmental assurances.If it receives final federal approval, construction of the pumps project could begin as early as late 2008
Conservation groups call on EPA to veto Miss. Delta pumps project
Associated Press
Jackson— The National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups called Tuesday for the Environmental Protection Agency to stop a planned $220 million pump project in the lower Mississippi Delta region.Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project would “drain and damage life-sustaining wetlands in Mississippi” and threaten a wide array of fish and wildlife.The Yazoo Backwater Project was authorized by Congress in 1941. It has undergone multiple revisions. The goal is to remove rainwater from the lower Delta that becomes impounded inside levees when the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers are at higher stages.For several decades, installing giant pumps near the confluence of the Yazoo and Steele Bayou, which drains much of the Delta, was the plan. That proposal has been modified.Last month, the Corps defended building the pumps in a crucial environmental report for the Yazoo Backwater Project, a proposal to build a pump station to drain wetlands, farmland and forests north of Vicksburg.The agency says the pumps would reduce flooding by as much as 4 1/2 feet in the region, but critics say the project is emblematic of the Corps’ flawed bureaucratic process that pours money into wasteful projects while urgent needs go unmet. Also, critics say the pumps would destroy up to 200,000 acres of wetlands.The Corps’ final environmental impact statement, the one released in November, is one step toward getting the project under way. The agency now will hold public meetings before handing the report over to top engineers for their approval.Before that happens, though, the project could be torpedoed by the EPA or the White House. The EPA says the pumps would harm the environment and says it might issue a rare veto.The NWF’s Schweiger said a veto is what conservationists want.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and American Rivers, an environmental group, also oppose the project. Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, said the pumps would “damage a staggering amount of wetlands.”Theodore Roosevelt IV, great-grandson of the former president and a New York investment banker, said the pump project threatens the Louisiana black bear, which has returned to the region.The Louisiana black bear is a subspecies of the American black bear and is considered threatened.Roosevelt said it was the black bear that brought his great-grandfather to Sharkey County, Miss., for a hunt. Roosevelt said the teddy bear’s creation resulted from that trip — the accidental combination of a tethered bear in a Mississippi woods, news stories about the president’s refusal to shoot it, and a cartoonist’s eye for an arresting image.Roosevelt said the region remains a treasured location for sportsmen and lies in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway, a migration route for waterfowl.“We know that one of the single damaging effect on wildlife is destruction to habitat, specially habitat that the Louisiana black bear thrives in,” he said.On the Net:National Wildlife Federation, http://www.nwf.orgCorps of Engineers, http://www.usace.army.milAmerican Rivers, http://www.americanrivers.org
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
Delta Democrat Times, Greenville, on “Project still needs thought.”
From one point of view, the Yazoo Backwater Project is a flagrant example of government waste that would destroy wildlife habitat. From another, it’s badly needed, long overdue flood protection.
The truth, we suspect, is somewhere between these extremes.
The National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups called recently for the Environmental Protection Agency to stop the planned $220 million pump project in the lower Mississippi Delta.
Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in a conference call with reporters that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project would “drain and damage life-sustaining wetlands in Mississippi” and threaten a wide array of fish and wildlife.
On the other side are the Corps and some residents of Sharkey and Issaquena counties who support the project. Some of these are people whose lands were flooded in 1973 — the last time the region experienced a major flood. Others are farmers who would get more use out of their lands if the project were completed.
Latest Yazoo Pump project of benefit to allThe Clarion-Ledger
There are more than 40 million hunters and anglers in the United States. I consider sportsmen as the original conservationists. After all, if our forests, waterways and marshlands are taken from us, then we can't enjoy sports that have become a passion for many of us.
As an avid hunter, I like to think that we are responsible for providing habitat for the game we hunt, and for the ecosystems that support game and other wildlife. It is one of the oldest forms of environmental advocacy in North America, owing its existence to men like President Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1902 visited the Mississippi Delta on his famous bear hunt, giving birth to the "Teddy Bear."
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, hunters and anglers currently contribute about $5 million a day from the sale of state hunting and fishing licenses and other activities and contributions to environmental conservation and protection. Hunting and fishing help to foster a relationship to the land that is crucial to future conservation efforts.
While sporting and conservation groups don't always see eye-to-eye on every issue, they often turn to one another as partners because of a common understanding that healthy ecosystems mean healthy habitats for game animals - conserving habitat.
It is for this great shared value that sportsmen, conservationists and others interested in environmental preservation should now show a united front in support of the Yazoo Backwater Pump Project. Much has been said and written about this project since its inception many years ago. But as proposed now, this is modern-day flood control, combining structures that will protect the people, homes and businesses of the south Delta while also enhancing the natural environment of the region.
The project is designed to place 55,600 acres of agricultural land under permanent conservation easements. This land currently offers few natural resource values, but when replanted as bottomland hardwood forest, as proposed, it will provide additional wildlife habitat, water quality benefits and significant environmental improvements.
The results of the reforestation will be an increase in wetlands resources in the region, an increase in terrestrial resources and an increase in aquatic resources. In addition, this reforestation will improve water quality by reducing sediment runoff.
A reforestation initiative of this size will vastly improve the habitat for all wildlife, fish and waterfowl in the south Delta. It'll also provide additional habitat for endangered species like the pondberry plant and Teddy Roosevelt's beloved Louisiana black bear.
No project on the scale of the Yazoo Backwater Pump Project is ever perfect, and nothing of this magnitude can be undertaken without some impact on the environment. But this project has been exhaustively reviewed for many years now, with significant improvements having been made to the original plan, especially in terms of environmental protection and conservation.
The net environmental impacts of this project are beneficial, as illustrated in the Corps of Engineers' Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and other detailed reports from technical experts. We've waited long enough - it is time to provide flood protection for the people who live and work in the south Delta and for the habitat which is degraded by flooding. I strongly urge my fellow hunters, fishermen and conservationists to support the Yazoo Backwater Pump Project. This should be an issue on which we all can agree.
Jim Luckett
Dublin
JUST THE FACTS
JUST THE FACTS ON THE YAZOO PUMPS PROJECT
PREPARED BY T. LOGAN RUSSELL
DECEMBER 8, 2007
FACT 1: The Vicksburg District of the US Army Corps of Engineers proposes to build the world’s largest hydraulic pumping plant at the confluence of Steele Bayou and the Yazoo River approximately 8 miles up the Yazoo from its mouth at the Mississippi River.
FACT 2: The original authorization for pumping plants in the Mississippi Delta comes from the Flood Control Act of 1941, as amended by FCA 1994, FCA 1965, and WRDA 1986. In 1962, the Chief of Engineers (not Congress) modified the 1941 plan to include connecting channels (6 Mile Cutoff and the Sunflower River-Steele Bayou Connecting Channel a/k/a The Big Ditch) between the Big Sunflower River, Little Sunflower River, Deer Creek and Steele Bayou. As such, the Vicksburg District has now diverted all the interior drainage of the entire Yazoo-Mississippi Delta to one point, the Steele Bayou Control Structure, where the COE now proposes to build the world’s largest hydraulic lift pumping plant.
In addition, the original authorization for the pumping plants (Flood Control Act of 1941) authorized pumping water down to 90’ above mean sea level and not below that level. In fact, the Flood Control Act of 1941 specifically states that lands below the 90 foot elevation are to be “dedicated to sump storage”. The Corps proposed plan entails pumping once water reaches 87’ above mean sea level and may be turned on as soon as water levels are “predicted to exceed 87 feet”. Most of the project’s economic benefits are found between the 87’ and 90’ level such that even given the Corps hocus pocus economic analysis, the project is not economically justified if built as authorized. Pumping below 90’ elevation is not legal and will not be legal unless the Corps receives additional authorization from Congress.
FACT 3: In 1800, the entire Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley (including portions of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois) consisted of approximately 21 million acres of forested wetlands also known as bottomland hardwood forests. Today less than 5 million acres of this “American Amazon” as Secretary of the Interior Babbitt called it, remain.
FACT 4: 95% of the denuded forest was cleared to enable the production of row crops. The highest elevation and least flood prone land consists of the best soils, fine, sandy, silt loam soils well suited to cotton production. Most of that land was cleared by the mid-1930s. More recently (late 1940s to present) the land cleared has consisted of heavy, clayey soils (known locally as “gumbo”) not well suited to cotton production and only marginally suited to soybean production. Average yields are in the 25-30 bushel range versus the 50-60 bushel range in Iowa, Illinois and other grain belt states. As such, up to 4 million acres of the 16 million acres cleared for crop production was done ill advisedly from an economic standpoint. In other words, this is economically marginal farmland that should have never been cleared.
FACT 5: With completion of the Mainline Mississippi River Levee in the 1940s, annual flooding from the Big River was controlled and the Corps of Engineers has since turned most of its attention to tributary flooding. The Corps issued the original Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Yazoo Pumping Plant in 1982.
In 1989, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ordered reformulation of the uncompleted tributary projects in the Yazoo Basin. Four distinct projects were identified for review: Upper Yazoo, Upper Steele Bayou, Yazoo Backwater and Headwater Tributaries. Reformulation studies for the Upper Yazoo and Upper Steele Bayou Projects have been completed resulting in better flood control, less environmental destruction and lower costs than the original proposals, yet none of the projects was abandoned. Reformulation studies of the Yazoo Backwater Area projects began in 1993, yet the public was not involved in the process until 1997.
FACT 6: The Yazoo Backwater Area (YBWA) is located in the south Mississippi Delta and lies between the east bank Mississippi River levee (the mainline levee) on the west and the Yazoo Basin escarpment (the bluff) on the east. COE data indicates that the YBWA contains approximately 925,000 acres subject to headwater flooding from the Yazoo River, the Sunflower River and Steele Bayou and backwater flooding from the Mississippi River. The COE divides the YBWA into 5 subareas. The subareas, acreage and uncompleted projects for each are given below:
Subarea Proposed Projects “Protected” Acres
CARTER AREA +/- 30 miles of levees 102,000 ac.
SATARTIA AREA Projects completed 1976 29,000 ac.
SATARTIA EXT. AREA Floodgate 3,000 ac.
ROCKY BAYOU AREA +/-15 mi. levees w/floodgate 14,000 ac.
YAZOO AREA Pumping Plant 625,000 ac.
5 Subareas 773,000 ac.
FACT 7: Although the OMB ordered reformulation of all YBWA projects, the Vicksburg District says that “after coordination with the local project sponsors, the reformulation efforts are being concentrated in the Yazoo Subarea.” That statement could be a red flag since the local project sponsor is the Board of Mississippi Levee Commissioners. In other words, it is possible that the COE is “incrementalizing” its analysis of the Yazoo Backwater Area projects such that the COE can build the Pumps sooner, the levees and floodgates later, thereby minimizing the “sticker shock” of a $400MM price tag for a comprehensive project versus incremental price tags of $200MM for the Pumps and then $200MM for levees and floodgates.
FACT 8: The COE has set the precedent for such “incrementalization” by separating the water resources planning effort for the proposed $62.4 MM Big Sunflower River “Maintenance” Project from the Yazoo Backwater Area projects, despite the fact that Big Sunflower River “Maintenance” Project Area lies almost entirely in the Yazoo Area of the Yazoo Backwater Area. (See Delta Land Trust’s “Just the Facts on the Big Sunflower River “Maintenance” Project.)
FACT 9: As part of the Reformulation process, the COE initiated a “facilitated workshops” process in April, 1997 that would purportedly entail discussion and analysis of a full range of alternatives for the Yazoo Backwater Area. The stated objective was to find common ground between the agricultural interests for the Pumps and the environmental interests against them. Landowners fall on both sides of this issue. During the third “facilitated workshop” on May 29,1997 the involved environmental activists demanded that COE provide a full briefing on how the facilitated workshop process fit into the reformulation study and on the alternatives under consideration. We were primarily concerned that despite NEPA, WRDA, FWCA and internal COE Policy to the contrary, very little information on non-structural alternatives had been provided, as opposed to the very detailed information furnished on structural alternatives. (Remember that the COE had been working on the structural alternatives as part of the Reformulation process since 1993).
FACT 10: As a result of activist demands, the COE issued a report on August 7, 1997 that included 29 alternatives: 9 non-structural only, 8 structural only and 12 combination of structural and non-structural. The National Economic Development option as indicated by the COE provided for a structural feature- a 14,000 CFS pump, a “non-structural feature”- the purchase of conservation easements on 159,000 acres of existing forested wetlands, and mitigation-driven reforestation of 18,500 acres of flood-prone farmland.
The proposed 159,000 acres of conservation easements on existing forests were completely unexpected by environmental interests. The COE’s argument for including the easements on existing forests is two-fold. One that the 14,000 CFS pump is not sufficient to reduce forestland flooding so the COE will buy the flood rights, thereby relieving the COE of the “obligation” to protect that land. And two, that if the Pumps alter the forested wetlands hydrology such that these wetlands lose their jurisdictional wetlands status, then the easements prevent the land from being cleared for farming, without CWA Section 404 and Swampbuster being involved.
Another possibility for why the COE may have included the 159,000 acres of easements on existing forestland is that the 159,000 acres of conservation easements sounds like non-structural flood control from a public relations standpoint and it gives owners of existing forestland a vested financial interest in pushing for this alternative i.e. they will be paid to allow the COE to flood their land, thereby relieving the COE of a phantom obligation since the land in question has been flooding for centuries with little economic consequence anyway because timber and wildlife production are flood tolerant land uses, although the nature of the flooding has been altered by previous Corps projects.
FACT 11: Sections 306 & 307 of WRDA 1990 authorized the Secretary of the Army to include environmental protection as a primary mission of the USACE. By June of 1990 the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works issued a “Statement of Environmental Approaches”. In June, 1995 COE Circular EC1105-2-210 “Ecosystem Restoration in the Civil Works Program” was issued. Under these new guidelines it was recognized that COE planning should explicitly recognize opportunities for environmental restoration. In fact, reductions in National Economic Development benefits could be justified in pursuit of environmental restoration.
FACT 12: As the result of the Corps’ own policy guidelines and the many environmental advantages inherent in a reforestation-based non-structural approach, the USFWS released a “Non-structural Strategy for Flood Damage Reduction” plan on August 5, 1997. In this plan, which has since been endorsed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the FWS proposed three restoration zones as follows:
CLEARED
ZONE ACRES NGVD FLOOD FREQ
1 60,000 <90 ft 0-3 year
2 181,000 90/97 ft 4-20 year
3 159,000 >97 ft 21-100 year
The Plan included priorities for each zone ranging from fee simple acquisition to easement purchases which would be funded through a variety of programs i.e. USDA Wetlands Reserve Program and Emergency Watershed Protection Program, COE Public Works Program, DOE Joint Implementation Program (carbon sequestration through photosynthesis to reduce CO2 emissions), FWS Partners for Wildlife and a number of EPA programs.
Easements would require reforestation with bottomland hardwood species and would allow cottonwood/oak interplant as an interim practice. Timber harvesting would be allowed based on approved management plan. Other property rights would be retained by the landowner, but reforested land must stay in a forested state. Primary dwellings would be relocated or flood-proofed at government expense.
FACT 13: Shortly after the FWS plan was announced, EPA contracted Dr. Leonard Shabman (then of Virginia Tech, now with Resources for the Future) to complete an objective economic assessment of the non-structural alternative. Issued in Feburary, 2000, that report entitled, “An Approach for Evaluating Nonstructural Actions with Applications to the Yazoo River (Mississippi) Backwater Area” (available at www.deltalandtrust.org) totally discredits Vicksburg District economic justification for the Pumps Project.
FACT 14: Delta Land Trust then secured funding from The McKnight Foundation to contract Dr. Dennis King (then of the University of Maryland) to determine the non-market economic values of a reforestation based non-structural alternative. Issued in December, 2000, that report entitled, “The Benefits and Costs of Reforesting Economically Marginal Cropland in the Mississippi Delta” (available at www.deltalandtrust.org) conclusively establishes that the highest and best use of marginal farmland is the production of timber, wildlife and environmental services.
FACT 15: The original deadline for release of the Vicksburg District’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the Pumps Project was August, 1998. That deadline was moved to Fall, 1998 and then to Spring, 1999 and then to September, 1999. In the interim, the chief local sponsor for the project- the Mississippi Levee Board based in Greenville, Mississippi- initiated a series of “consensus building” meetings. The first such meeting was held on March 30, 1999 at Levee Board offices in Greenville, Mississippi. At that meeting, Charlie Baxter, a now retired biologist with FWS in Vicksburg, Mississippi unveiled a “compromise” plan that entails four elements: 1- Construction of a pumping plant with no pumping below 90.7 feet (the two year flood elevation) 2- Flowage easement purchases from willing sellers on approximately 100,000 acres of marginal farmland below 90.7 feet 3- Loss of crop insurance benefits for landowners at 90.7 feet and below that continued to farm and 4-reimbursement to county treasuries of any property tax revenues lost as the result of the easement purchases.
FACT 16: Note the extreme differences in the FWS’s position in August, 1997 as established by its “Non-Structural Strategy for Flood Damage Reduction” referenced above and its April, 1999 position as unveiled by Baxter at the Levee Board meeting. Given that the FWS is again in opposition to any pumping plant being a part of flood damage reduction in the YBWA, it appears that Baxter was working largely on his own. To this day, EPA has never endorsed the FWS 1999 Plan and has stood by its original endorsement of the FWS 1997 Plan.
FACT 17: At the conclusion of the Levee board meeting of 3-30-99, the parties agreed to a second meeting on 4-19-99. At that meeting, the environmental groups established that we were not interested in additional meetings without first having the DEIS. Upon making this declaration, Service biologist Charlie Baxter suggested that the DEIS itself was not necessary, just the information included in it. Delta Land Trust has qualified legal opinion that unless the information is included in a formal DEIS, the COE has no obligation to insure the accuracy of said information. Thus it would be possible for the COE to provide one set of information in the informal meetings and completely different information in the DEIS.
FACT 18: A third meeting was held on 5-11-99. On 5-13-99 the environmental organizations issued a statement that they were withdrawing from the “Consensus Building Process” because there had been no indication that a true non-structural alternative was under consideration. Despite the withdrawal of the environmental groups, the Levee Board, Corps, FWS, EPA and others met on 5-26-99 and again on 7-22-99. In hindsight it is now clear that the “Consensus Building Process” was structured from the start to secure environmentalist support for the FWS 1999 Plan that includes construction of a 14,000 CFS Pumping Plant and that the Corps has used and will continue to use the “Consensus Building Process” as evidence of NEPA compliance.
FACT 19: In November, 1999, a draft copy of a Mississippi State University study entitled, “Implications of Providing Managed Wetlands/Flood Protection Options Using Two-Way Floodgates in Conjunction with the Yazoo Backwater Pumps” was obtained through an Open Records Request by the Clarion Ledger. The study was commissioned by Delta Council but when the preliminary results did not confirm the agribusiness lobby’s contention that the Pumps were economically and hydrologically justified, the well connected good old boy organization based in Stoneville, MS took steps to insure that the report was “buried”. MSU senior management agreed but not before Clarion Ledger environmental reporter Bruce Reid found out about the report and filed the Open Records Request.
The report states that crop acreage has increased substantially since the mid-1950s despite contentions that flooding so bad the government should build a $250 million pumping plant to protect farms there. The report also refutes the notion that flooding is bad for wildlife, one of the latest claims by project proponents in their attempt to co-opt the environmental issue in favor of the Pumps. And the report observes that a pumping plant and water management plan to control flooding and possibly enhance wildlife habitat may not be as effective as desired based on computer models. In some years, there may not be enough water to benefit wildlife; in other years, the risk of spring flooding would still be present even with the Pump operating.
Rather than complete the “draft” report and publish it, Mississippi State took the position that it did not have sufficient funding available for the research necessary to complete it. The truth is that Delta Council used its influence with senior management at MSU to kill the report.
FACT 20: In December, 1999, the Gulf Restoration Network issues report that analyzes purported benefits of the Pumping Plant. The report found that there were a total of 1352 structures in the 1-100 year floodplain of the YBWA including 396 house trailers, 871 residential structures and 50 commercial buildings. The total market value of all 1352 structures was $38,607,000. Of those 1352 structures, only 322 were in the 1-10 year floodplain that the Pumping Plant would most protect.
FACT 21: In February, 2000, a 139 page study prepared under contract for EPA by Dr. Leonard Shabman and Ms. Laura Zepp of the Virginia Water Resources Research Center is released. The study concludes that “agricultural flood protection benefits for a Pumps Project appear insufficient to justify the costs.” As an alternative to the Pumping Plant, Shabman and Zepp recommended a “watershed approach” and stated that, “If the problems and opportunities of the watershed area are to be addressed with federal funds, nonstructural actions can be implemented for budget cost significantly lower than the cost for a pump.” Among other flaws, the Shabman/Zepp report showed that the Corps had over-estimated the agricultural benefits of the Pumps by a staggering $144 million and demonstrates that even if the project is built, farm profits in the area will still come only from farm subsidy payments.
FACT 22: Release of the Shabman/Zepp information prompted increasing rhetoric from Pumps proponents claiming that the Pumps would save homes and lives and that the residents of the area are at constant risk from flooding. However, information obtained from FEMA indicated that residential flood protection does not justify construction of the Pumps. During the 24 year period from 1979 to 2002, ony 62 properties within the project area filed flood insurance claims under the National Flood Insurance Program Collectively, these properties filed 209 claims for damages totaling $1.67 million.
FACT 23: Also in February, 2000, The Washington Post ran a series of articles by staff writer Michael Grunwald detailing how Corps staff rigged an economic study that justified expansion of the lock and dam system on the Upper Mississippi River. This article lead to serious examination of Corps activities by Pentagon staff, pledges by Clinton Administration officials that significant changes would be made to the Corps and a review of Corps policy and practices by the National Academy of Sciences. In the end, the US Senate stepped in and blocked any meaningful Corps reform.
FACT 24: The Environmental Working Group issues a report in April, 2000 illustrating that the top 10% of all farmers in Mississippi received 83% of all farm subsidy payments received by Mississippi farmers from 1996-1998, giving Mississippi the most uneven distribution of farm program payments in the country.
FACT 25: Mississippi native Sam Hamilton, Regional Director of the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s SE Region writes General Phillip Anderson, Division Engineer of the USACE, Mississippi Valley Division with regards to the role of federal water resource policy in perpetuating poverty in the Delta. Hamilton writes of “concern that federal, publicly financed flood control/drainage programs and policies have been instrumental in transforming the nation’s largest and most ecologically rich flood-plain ecosystem into a region that is considered impoverished by most social, economic and environmental standards.”
FACT 26: In September, 2000, The Washington Post expands its focus from the Upper Mississippi River Lock & Dam project to a comprehensive review of Corps projects and policies nationwide. The second article in a five article series investigates the Corps activities in the Mississippi Delta.
FACT 27: Also in September, 2000 the Corps issued the reformulated Draft Environmental Impact Statement as required by OMB in 1991. In its order for reformulation, OMB required that the Corps prepare a plan that provided for more flood protection of urban areas, less agricultural intensification and less environmental destruction. Sadly, the 2000 DEIS failed on all fronts. According to Charlie Baxter of FWS, “Despite the fact that the Corps’ plan offers some hope of reforesting high-risk farmland, their proposal is rooted in the same federal drainage policies that have failed to produce an economically or environmentally sustainable Delta,” Baxter said. The Reformulated DEIS was roundly and universally attacked by every environmental, conservation and taxpayer group that reviewed it.
FACT 28: In early 2001, the Corps went on the offensive by issuing letters and creating a website to protest the spread of so-called “erroneous information about the project”. Go to www.mvk.usace.army.mil/offices/pp/Yazoobackwater/backwater.asp to see the erroneous information the Corps is circulating to combat so-called erroneous information being written about the features of the project as described in the DEIS.
FACT 29: Due to protestations by environmental and conservation groups, the Mississippi Supreme Court’s ruling on the Water Quality Certification permit for the Big Sunflower River “Maintenance” Project and official comments by federal resource agencies in response to the Reformulated DEIS, the Corps delayed issuance of the Final Reformulated DEIS and instead implemented a process to ground truth the acreage of wetland resources in the YBWA as part of the “Wetlands Appendix”.
Field sampling by staff from the Corps and EPA occurred from June 2-14, 2003. A draft report issued by EPA in November, 2003 entitled “An Estimate of Wetland Extent in the Lower Yazoo Basin Using an EMAP Probabilistic Sampling Design” indicates that there are approximately 188,000 acres of jurisdictional wetlands in the 100 year floodplain of the YBWA. What conclusions the Corps will draw about the impact of the Yazoo Pumps on these wetlands will not be known until the FEIS is issued, but preliminary indications are not encouraging.
FACT 30: In August, 2003, Earthjustice attorneys Stephen Roady and Keri Powell issued a Notice of Intent to Sue letter to Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee for violations of the Endangered Species Act in connection with the Yazoo Pumps Project. The Corps promptly responded by initiating endangered species consultation on pondberry with FWS so filing of the lawsuit has thus far not been necessary, although Roady and Powell have recently requested similar consulting for the Louisiana Black Bear and it remains to be seen how the Corps will respond to that request.
FACT 31: Senators Cochran (R-MS) and Lott (R-MS) have been consistently including funding for the Yazoo Pumps in various spending bills while Senator John McCain to prevent the 2003 appropriation. Despite Meanwhile, the President’s FY 2004 budget cancelled funding for the Yazoo Pumps and other Corps Civil Works projects across the country.
FACT 32: Data obtained from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) indicated that from 1979-2003, federal flood insurance claims were filed on only 62 properties in the YBWA for a grand total of $1.67 MM in claims or less than $70K per year. As such, it is quite evident to even the most biased observer that there is not a residential/commercial/industrial flooding problem in the YBWA.
FACT 33: Despite scientific studies by LSU and a formal request and emotional pleadings by the Saint Bernard Parish Police Jury and many other individuals and organizations dating at least to 1997, the Corps refused to close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO). Mr. GO as it is called locally was a primary cause of the levee failures in New Orleans (along with faulty engineering design and construction of the levees, also a Corps responsibility).
FACT 34: The Mississippi River Mainline Levee system has been built on not one, but two active earthquake faults. The New Madrid Fault runs north and south from Missouri into North Mississippi, while the White River fault runs east-west from Mississippi into Arkansas. Concentration of water between the levees increases downward pressure on these faults, making an earthquake and resultant levee damage much greater. The USGS has projected a 25% chance of a major earthquake on the New Madrid Fault by the year 2050.
FACT 35: Despite environmental litigation to prevent getting the dirt from forested wetlands on the interior of the levee, the Corps has been digging dirt from these wetlands to raise and repair the Mainline Levee for much of this century. This results in less protection of the levee from wind and wave action and hydraulic pressure during Mississippi River floods. Unlike the last levee crevasses during the 1927 flood, there are few forested wetlands on the protected side to slow the water from a levee break. I am firmly convinced that it should be US national priority to reforest all land between the levees (allowing one acre of open land per 100 acres for wildlife food plots) and reforest a one mile strip on the protected side of levee on both sides of the river as a buffer in the event of natural or manmade (terrorist incident) levee failure.
FACT 36: In November, 2007, the Corps has issued the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which calls for a 14,000 CFS pumping plant to be used when water reaches 87’ elevation and voluntary reforestation on up to 55,000 acres. Environmentalists have requested that the US Environmental Protection Agency veto the project under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act which gives EPA this right and that the White House Council on Environmental Quality request a Cabinet level review of the project.
FACT 37: The comment period on the Yazoo Backwater Area Reformulation is open until later this month. Concerned citizens can oppose the project by emailing the Corps at: yazoobackwater@usace.army.mil. I suggest the following message:
I OPPOSE THE YAZOO PUMPS BASED ON ENVIRONMENTAL, FISCAL, LEGAL AND MORAL GROUNDS. I SUPPORT RING LEVEES AROUND COMMUNITIES, ELEVATION AND RELOCATION OF THE FEW AFFECTED STRUCTURES AND MANDATORY REFORESTATION OF FLOOD PRONE FARMLAND VIA FLOWAGE EASEMENTS.
SIGNED,
YOUR NAME
Due to the ecological damage to wetlands and endangered species and the economic superiority of the true non-structural alternative, I am categorically opposed to construction of the Pumping Plant regardless of the environmental features that might be included with it. As demonstrated by the EPA/Shabman analysis and the Delta LandTrust/King analysis, the highest and best use of the economically marginal farmland in the YBWA is the production of timber, wildlife and environmental services, not the production of row crop. This situation would persist even if the Pumping Plant were built. Another compelling argument against building the Pumps is that, despite the expenditure of billions of flood control dollars, the Delta is one of the most economically impoverished areas in the United States. Construction of the Yazoo Pumps will do nothing to change that.
© Copyright, T. Logan Russell. 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007. All Rights Reserved.
PREPARED BY T. LOGAN RUSSELL
DECEMBER 8, 2007
FACT 1: The Vicksburg District of the US Army Corps of Engineers proposes to build the world’s largest hydraulic pumping plant at the confluence of Steele Bayou and the Yazoo River approximately 8 miles up the Yazoo from its mouth at the Mississippi River.
FACT 2: The original authorization for pumping plants in the Mississippi Delta comes from the Flood Control Act of 1941, as amended by FCA 1994, FCA 1965, and WRDA 1986. In 1962, the Chief of Engineers (not Congress) modified the 1941 plan to include connecting channels (6 Mile Cutoff and the Sunflower River-Steele Bayou Connecting Channel a/k/a The Big Ditch) between the Big Sunflower River, Little Sunflower River, Deer Creek and Steele Bayou. As such, the Vicksburg District has now diverted all the interior drainage of the entire Yazoo-Mississippi Delta to one point, the Steele Bayou Control Structure, where the COE now proposes to build the world’s largest hydraulic lift pumping plant.
In addition, the original authorization for the pumping plants (Flood Control Act of 1941) authorized pumping water down to 90’ above mean sea level and not below that level. In fact, the Flood Control Act of 1941 specifically states that lands below the 90 foot elevation are to be “dedicated to sump storage”. The Corps proposed plan entails pumping once water reaches 87’ above mean sea level and may be turned on as soon as water levels are “predicted to exceed 87 feet”. Most of the project’s economic benefits are found between the 87’ and 90’ level such that even given the Corps hocus pocus economic analysis, the project is not economically justified if built as authorized. Pumping below 90’ elevation is not legal and will not be legal unless the Corps receives additional authorization from Congress.
FACT 3: In 1800, the entire Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley (including portions of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois) consisted of approximately 21 million acres of forested wetlands also known as bottomland hardwood forests. Today less than 5 million acres of this “American Amazon” as Secretary of the Interior Babbitt called it, remain.
FACT 4: 95% of the denuded forest was cleared to enable the production of row crops. The highest elevation and least flood prone land consists of the best soils, fine, sandy, silt loam soils well suited to cotton production. Most of that land was cleared by the mid-1930s. More recently (late 1940s to present) the land cleared has consisted of heavy, clayey soils (known locally as “gumbo”) not well suited to cotton production and only marginally suited to soybean production. Average yields are in the 25-30 bushel range versus the 50-60 bushel range in Iowa, Illinois and other grain belt states. As such, up to 4 million acres of the 16 million acres cleared for crop production was done ill advisedly from an economic standpoint. In other words, this is economically marginal farmland that should have never been cleared.
FACT 5: With completion of the Mainline Mississippi River Levee in the 1940s, annual flooding from the Big River was controlled and the Corps of Engineers has since turned most of its attention to tributary flooding. The Corps issued the original Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Yazoo Pumping Plant in 1982.
In 1989, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ordered reformulation of the uncompleted tributary projects in the Yazoo Basin. Four distinct projects were identified for review: Upper Yazoo, Upper Steele Bayou, Yazoo Backwater and Headwater Tributaries. Reformulation studies for the Upper Yazoo and Upper Steele Bayou Projects have been completed resulting in better flood control, less environmental destruction and lower costs than the original proposals, yet none of the projects was abandoned. Reformulation studies of the Yazoo Backwater Area projects began in 1993, yet the public was not involved in the process until 1997.
FACT 6: The Yazoo Backwater Area (YBWA) is located in the south Mississippi Delta and lies between the east bank Mississippi River levee (the mainline levee) on the west and the Yazoo Basin escarpment (the bluff) on the east. COE data indicates that the YBWA contains approximately 925,000 acres subject to headwater flooding from the Yazoo River, the Sunflower River and Steele Bayou and backwater flooding from the Mississippi River. The COE divides the YBWA into 5 subareas. The subareas, acreage and uncompleted projects for each are given below:
Subarea Proposed Projects “Protected” Acres
CARTER AREA +/- 30 miles of levees 102,000 ac.
SATARTIA AREA Projects completed 1976 29,000 ac.
SATARTIA EXT. AREA Floodgate 3,000 ac.
ROCKY BAYOU AREA +/-15 mi. levees w/floodgate 14,000 ac.
YAZOO AREA Pumping Plant 625,000 ac.
5 Subareas 773,000 ac.
FACT 7: Although the OMB ordered reformulation of all YBWA projects, the Vicksburg District says that “after coordination with the local project sponsors, the reformulation efforts are being concentrated in the Yazoo Subarea.” That statement could be a red flag since the local project sponsor is the Board of Mississippi Levee Commissioners. In other words, it is possible that the COE is “incrementalizing” its analysis of the Yazoo Backwater Area projects such that the COE can build the Pumps sooner, the levees and floodgates later, thereby minimizing the “sticker shock” of a $400MM price tag for a comprehensive project versus incremental price tags of $200MM for the Pumps and then $200MM for levees and floodgates.
FACT 8: The COE has set the precedent for such “incrementalization” by separating the water resources planning effort for the proposed $62.4 MM Big Sunflower River “Maintenance” Project from the Yazoo Backwater Area projects, despite the fact that Big Sunflower River “Maintenance” Project Area lies almost entirely in the Yazoo Area of the Yazoo Backwater Area. (See Delta Land Trust’s “Just the Facts on the Big Sunflower River “Maintenance” Project.)
FACT 9: As part of the Reformulation process, the COE initiated a “facilitated workshops” process in April, 1997 that would purportedly entail discussion and analysis of a full range of alternatives for the Yazoo Backwater Area. The stated objective was to find common ground between the agricultural interests for the Pumps and the environmental interests against them. Landowners fall on both sides of this issue. During the third “facilitated workshop” on May 29,1997 the involved environmental activists demanded that COE provide a full briefing on how the facilitated workshop process fit into the reformulation study and on the alternatives under consideration. We were primarily concerned that despite NEPA, WRDA, FWCA and internal COE Policy to the contrary, very little information on non-structural alternatives had been provided, as opposed to the very detailed information furnished on structural alternatives. (Remember that the COE had been working on the structural alternatives as part of the Reformulation process since 1993).
FACT 10: As a result of activist demands, the COE issued a report on August 7, 1997 that included 29 alternatives: 9 non-structural only, 8 structural only and 12 combination of structural and non-structural. The National Economic Development option as indicated by the COE provided for a structural feature- a 14,000 CFS pump, a “non-structural feature”- the purchase of conservation easements on 159,000 acres of existing forested wetlands, and mitigation-driven reforestation of 18,500 acres of flood-prone farmland.
The proposed 159,000 acres of conservation easements on existing forests were completely unexpected by environmental interests. The COE’s argument for including the easements on existing forests is two-fold. One that the 14,000 CFS pump is not sufficient to reduce forestland flooding so the COE will buy the flood rights, thereby relieving the COE of the “obligation” to protect that land. And two, that if the Pumps alter the forested wetlands hydrology such that these wetlands lose their jurisdictional wetlands status, then the easements prevent the land from being cleared for farming, without CWA Section 404 and Swampbuster being involved.
Another possibility for why the COE may have included the 159,000 acres of easements on existing forestland is that the 159,000 acres of conservation easements sounds like non-structural flood control from a public relations standpoint and it gives owners of existing forestland a vested financial interest in pushing for this alternative i.e. they will be paid to allow the COE to flood their land, thereby relieving the COE of a phantom obligation since the land in question has been flooding for centuries with little economic consequence anyway because timber and wildlife production are flood tolerant land uses, although the nature of the flooding has been altered by previous Corps projects.
FACT 11: Sections 306 & 307 of WRDA 1990 authorized the Secretary of the Army to include environmental protection as a primary mission of the USACE. By June of 1990 the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works issued a “Statement of Environmental Approaches”. In June, 1995 COE Circular EC1105-2-210 “Ecosystem Restoration in the Civil Works Program” was issued. Under these new guidelines it was recognized that COE planning should explicitly recognize opportunities for environmental restoration. In fact, reductions in National Economic Development benefits could be justified in pursuit of environmental restoration.
FACT 12: As the result of the Corps’ own policy guidelines and the many environmental advantages inherent in a reforestation-based non-structural approach, the USFWS released a “Non-structural Strategy for Flood Damage Reduction” plan on August 5, 1997. In this plan, which has since been endorsed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the FWS proposed three restoration zones as follows:
CLEARED
ZONE ACRES NGVD FLOOD FREQ
1 60,000 <90 ft 0-3 year
2 181,000 90/97 ft 4-20 year
3 159,000 >97 ft 21-100 year
The Plan included priorities for each zone ranging from fee simple acquisition to easement purchases which would be funded through a variety of programs i.e. USDA Wetlands Reserve Program and Emergency Watershed Protection Program, COE Public Works Program, DOE Joint Implementation Program (carbon sequestration through photosynthesis to reduce CO2 emissions), FWS Partners for Wildlife and a number of EPA programs.
Easements would require reforestation with bottomland hardwood species and would allow cottonwood/oak interplant as an interim practice. Timber harvesting would be allowed based on approved management plan. Other property rights would be retained by the landowner, but reforested land must stay in a forested state. Primary dwellings would be relocated or flood-proofed at government expense.
FACT 13: Shortly after the FWS plan was announced, EPA contracted Dr. Leonard Shabman (then of Virginia Tech, now with Resources for the Future) to complete an objective economic assessment of the non-structural alternative. Issued in Feburary, 2000, that report entitled, “An Approach for Evaluating Nonstructural Actions with Applications to the Yazoo River (Mississippi) Backwater Area” (available at www.deltalandtrust.org) totally discredits Vicksburg District economic justification for the Pumps Project.
FACT 14: Delta Land Trust then secured funding from The McKnight Foundation to contract Dr. Dennis King (then of the University of Maryland) to determine the non-market economic values of a reforestation based non-structural alternative. Issued in December, 2000, that report entitled, “The Benefits and Costs of Reforesting Economically Marginal Cropland in the Mississippi Delta” (available at www.deltalandtrust.org) conclusively establishes that the highest and best use of marginal farmland is the production of timber, wildlife and environmental services.
FACT 15: The original deadline for release of the Vicksburg District’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the Pumps Project was August, 1998. That deadline was moved to Fall, 1998 and then to Spring, 1999 and then to September, 1999. In the interim, the chief local sponsor for the project- the Mississippi Levee Board based in Greenville, Mississippi- initiated a series of “consensus building” meetings. The first such meeting was held on March 30, 1999 at Levee Board offices in Greenville, Mississippi. At that meeting, Charlie Baxter, a now retired biologist with FWS in Vicksburg, Mississippi unveiled a “compromise” plan that entails four elements: 1- Construction of a pumping plant with no pumping below 90.7 feet (the two year flood elevation) 2- Flowage easement purchases from willing sellers on approximately 100,000 acres of marginal farmland below 90.7 feet 3- Loss of crop insurance benefits for landowners at 90.7 feet and below that continued to farm and 4-reimbursement to county treasuries of any property tax revenues lost as the result of the easement purchases.
FACT 16: Note the extreme differences in the FWS’s position in August, 1997 as established by its “Non-Structural Strategy for Flood Damage Reduction” referenced above and its April, 1999 position as unveiled by Baxter at the Levee Board meeting. Given that the FWS is again in opposition to any pumping plant being a part of flood damage reduction in the YBWA, it appears that Baxter was working largely on his own. To this day, EPA has never endorsed the FWS 1999 Plan and has stood by its original endorsement of the FWS 1997 Plan.
FACT 17: At the conclusion of the Levee board meeting of 3-30-99, the parties agreed to a second meeting on 4-19-99. At that meeting, the environmental groups established that we were not interested in additional meetings without first having the DEIS. Upon making this declaration, Service biologist Charlie Baxter suggested that the DEIS itself was not necessary, just the information included in it. Delta Land Trust has qualified legal opinion that unless the information is included in a formal DEIS, the COE has no obligation to insure the accuracy of said information. Thus it would be possible for the COE to provide one set of information in the informal meetings and completely different information in the DEIS.
FACT 18: A third meeting was held on 5-11-99. On 5-13-99 the environmental organizations issued a statement that they were withdrawing from the “Consensus Building Process” because there had been no indication that a true non-structural alternative was under consideration. Despite the withdrawal of the environmental groups, the Levee Board, Corps, FWS, EPA and others met on 5-26-99 and again on 7-22-99. In hindsight it is now clear that the “Consensus Building Process” was structured from the start to secure environmentalist support for the FWS 1999 Plan that includes construction of a 14,000 CFS Pumping Plant and that the Corps has used and will continue to use the “Consensus Building Process” as evidence of NEPA compliance.
FACT 19: In November, 1999, a draft copy of a Mississippi State University study entitled, “Implications of Providing Managed Wetlands/Flood Protection Options Using Two-Way Floodgates in Conjunction with the Yazoo Backwater Pumps” was obtained through an Open Records Request by the Clarion Ledger. The study was commissioned by Delta Council but when the preliminary results did not confirm the agribusiness lobby’s contention that the Pumps were economically and hydrologically justified, the well connected good old boy organization based in Stoneville, MS took steps to insure that the report was “buried”. MSU senior management agreed but not before Clarion Ledger environmental reporter Bruce Reid found out about the report and filed the Open Records Request.
The report states that crop acreage has increased substantially since the mid-1950s despite contentions that flooding so bad the government should build a $250 million pumping plant to protect farms there. The report also refutes the notion that flooding is bad for wildlife, one of the latest claims by project proponents in their attempt to co-opt the environmental issue in favor of the Pumps. And the report observes that a pumping plant and water management plan to control flooding and possibly enhance wildlife habitat may not be as effective as desired based on computer models. In some years, there may not be enough water to benefit wildlife; in other years, the risk of spring flooding would still be present even with the Pump operating.
Rather than complete the “draft” report and publish it, Mississippi State took the position that it did not have sufficient funding available for the research necessary to complete it. The truth is that Delta Council used its influence with senior management at MSU to kill the report.
FACT 20: In December, 1999, the Gulf Restoration Network issues report that analyzes purported benefits of the Pumping Plant. The report found that there were a total of 1352 structures in the 1-100 year floodplain of the YBWA including 396 house trailers, 871 residential structures and 50 commercial buildings. The total market value of all 1352 structures was $38,607,000. Of those 1352 structures, only 322 were in the 1-10 year floodplain that the Pumping Plant would most protect.
FACT 21: In February, 2000, a 139 page study prepared under contract for EPA by Dr. Leonard Shabman and Ms. Laura Zepp of the Virginia Water Resources Research Center is released. The study concludes that “agricultural flood protection benefits for a Pumps Project appear insufficient to justify the costs.” As an alternative to the Pumping Plant, Shabman and Zepp recommended a “watershed approach” and stated that, “If the problems and opportunities of the watershed area are to be addressed with federal funds, nonstructural actions can be implemented for budget cost significantly lower than the cost for a pump.” Among other flaws, the Shabman/Zepp report showed that the Corps had over-estimated the agricultural benefits of the Pumps by a staggering $144 million and demonstrates that even if the project is built, farm profits in the area will still come only from farm subsidy payments.
FACT 22: Release of the Shabman/Zepp information prompted increasing rhetoric from Pumps proponents claiming that the Pumps would save homes and lives and that the residents of the area are at constant risk from flooding. However, information obtained from FEMA indicated that residential flood protection does not justify construction of the Pumps. During the 24 year period from 1979 to 2002, ony 62 properties within the project area filed flood insurance claims under the National Flood Insurance Program Collectively, these properties filed 209 claims for damages totaling $1.67 million.
FACT 23: Also in February, 2000, The Washington Post ran a series of articles by staff writer Michael Grunwald detailing how Corps staff rigged an economic study that justified expansion of the lock and dam system on the Upper Mississippi River. This article lead to serious examination of Corps activities by Pentagon staff, pledges by Clinton Administration officials that significant changes would be made to the Corps and a review of Corps policy and practices by the National Academy of Sciences. In the end, the US Senate stepped in and blocked any meaningful Corps reform.
FACT 24: The Environmental Working Group issues a report in April, 2000 illustrating that the top 10% of all farmers in Mississippi received 83% of all farm subsidy payments received by Mississippi farmers from 1996-1998, giving Mississippi the most uneven distribution of farm program payments in the country.
FACT 25: Mississippi native Sam Hamilton, Regional Director of the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s SE Region writes General Phillip Anderson, Division Engineer of the USACE, Mississippi Valley Division with regards to the role of federal water resource policy in perpetuating poverty in the Delta. Hamilton writes of “concern that federal, publicly financed flood control/drainage programs and policies have been instrumental in transforming the nation’s largest and most ecologically rich flood-plain ecosystem into a region that is considered impoverished by most social, economic and environmental standards.”
FACT 26: In September, 2000, The Washington Post expands its focus from the Upper Mississippi River Lock & Dam project to a comprehensive review of Corps projects and policies nationwide. The second article in a five article series investigates the Corps activities in the Mississippi Delta.
FACT 27: Also in September, 2000 the Corps issued the reformulated Draft Environmental Impact Statement as required by OMB in 1991. In its order for reformulation, OMB required that the Corps prepare a plan that provided for more flood protection of urban areas, less agricultural intensification and less environmental destruction. Sadly, the 2000 DEIS failed on all fronts. According to Charlie Baxter of FWS, “Despite the fact that the Corps’ plan offers some hope of reforesting high-risk farmland, their proposal is rooted in the same federal drainage policies that have failed to produce an economically or environmentally sustainable Delta,” Baxter said. The Reformulated DEIS was roundly and universally attacked by every environmental, conservation and taxpayer group that reviewed it.
FACT 28: In early 2001, the Corps went on the offensive by issuing letters and creating a website to protest the spread of so-called “erroneous information about the project”. Go to www.mvk.usace.army.mil/offices/pp/Yazoobackwater/backwater.asp to see the erroneous information the Corps is circulating to combat so-called erroneous information being written about the features of the project as described in the DEIS.
FACT 29: Due to protestations by environmental and conservation groups, the Mississippi Supreme Court’s ruling on the Water Quality Certification permit for the Big Sunflower River “Maintenance” Project and official comments by federal resource agencies in response to the Reformulated DEIS, the Corps delayed issuance of the Final Reformulated DEIS and instead implemented a process to ground truth the acreage of wetland resources in the YBWA as part of the “Wetlands Appendix”.
Field sampling by staff from the Corps and EPA occurred from June 2-14, 2003. A draft report issued by EPA in November, 2003 entitled “An Estimate of Wetland Extent in the Lower Yazoo Basin Using an EMAP Probabilistic Sampling Design” indicates that there are approximately 188,000 acres of jurisdictional wetlands in the 100 year floodplain of the YBWA. What conclusions the Corps will draw about the impact of the Yazoo Pumps on these wetlands will not be known until the FEIS is issued, but preliminary indications are not encouraging.
FACT 30: In August, 2003, Earthjustice attorneys Stephen Roady and Keri Powell issued a Notice of Intent to Sue letter to Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee for violations of the Endangered Species Act in connection with the Yazoo Pumps Project. The Corps promptly responded by initiating endangered species consultation on pondberry with FWS so filing of the lawsuit has thus far not been necessary, although Roady and Powell have recently requested similar consulting for the Louisiana Black Bear and it remains to be seen how the Corps will respond to that request.
FACT 31: Senators Cochran (R-MS) and Lott (R-MS) have been consistently including funding for the Yazoo Pumps in various spending bills while Senator John McCain to prevent the 2003 appropriation. Despite Meanwhile, the President’s FY 2004 budget cancelled funding for the Yazoo Pumps and other Corps Civil Works projects across the country.
FACT 32: Data obtained from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) indicated that from 1979-2003, federal flood insurance claims were filed on only 62 properties in the YBWA for a grand total of $1.67 MM in claims or less than $70K per year. As such, it is quite evident to even the most biased observer that there is not a residential/commercial/industrial flooding problem in the YBWA.
FACT 33: Despite scientific studies by LSU and a formal request and emotional pleadings by the Saint Bernard Parish Police Jury and many other individuals and organizations dating at least to 1997, the Corps refused to close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO). Mr. GO as it is called locally was a primary cause of the levee failures in New Orleans (along with faulty engineering design and construction of the levees, also a Corps responsibility).
FACT 34: The Mississippi River Mainline Levee system has been built on not one, but two active earthquake faults. The New Madrid Fault runs north and south from Missouri into North Mississippi, while the White River fault runs east-west from Mississippi into Arkansas. Concentration of water between the levees increases downward pressure on these faults, making an earthquake and resultant levee damage much greater. The USGS has projected a 25% chance of a major earthquake on the New Madrid Fault by the year 2050.
FACT 35: Despite environmental litigation to prevent getting the dirt from forested wetlands on the interior of the levee, the Corps has been digging dirt from these wetlands to raise and repair the Mainline Levee for much of this century. This results in less protection of the levee from wind and wave action and hydraulic pressure during Mississippi River floods. Unlike the last levee crevasses during the 1927 flood, there are few forested wetlands on the protected side to slow the water from a levee break. I am firmly convinced that it should be US national priority to reforest all land between the levees (allowing one acre of open land per 100 acres for wildlife food plots) and reforest a one mile strip on the protected side of levee on both sides of the river as a buffer in the event of natural or manmade (terrorist incident) levee failure.
FACT 36: In November, 2007, the Corps has issued the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which calls for a 14,000 CFS pumping plant to be used when water reaches 87’ elevation and voluntary reforestation on up to 55,000 acres. Environmentalists have requested that the US Environmental Protection Agency veto the project under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act which gives EPA this right and that the White House Council on Environmental Quality request a Cabinet level review of the project.
FACT 37: The comment period on the Yazoo Backwater Area Reformulation is open until later this month. Concerned citizens can oppose the project by emailing the Corps at: yazoobackwater@usace.army.mil. I suggest the following message:
I OPPOSE THE YAZOO PUMPS BASED ON ENVIRONMENTAL, FISCAL, LEGAL AND MORAL GROUNDS. I SUPPORT RING LEVEES AROUND COMMUNITIES, ELEVATION AND RELOCATION OF THE FEW AFFECTED STRUCTURES AND MANDATORY REFORESTATION OF FLOOD PRONE FARMLAND VIA FLOWAGE EASEMENTS.
SIGNED,
YOUR NAME
Due to the ecological damage to wetlands and endangered species and the economic superiority of the true non-structural alternative, I am categorically opposed to construction of the Pumping Plant regardless of the environmental features that might be included with it. As demonstrated by the EPA/Shabman analysis and the Delta LandTrust/King analysis, the highest and best use of the economically marginal farmland in the YBWA is the production of timber, wildlife and environmental services, not the production of row crop. This situation would persist even if the Pumping Plant were built. Another compelling argument against building the Pumps is that, despite the expenditure of billions of flood control dollars, the Delta is one of the most economically impoverished areas in the United States. Construction of the Yazoo Pumps will do nothing to change that.
© Copyright, T. Logan Russell. 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007. All Rights Reserved.
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