EPA vetoes controversial pumps

The Clarion-Ledger, 9/3/8

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday all but killed a federal plan nearly seven decades in the making to build the world’s largest water pumps in the Mississippi Delta.

Ben Grumbles, EPA assistant administrator for water, followed through on the agency’s threat to veto the $220 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood-control project.

He said officials can now work on a more “sustainable path” to reduce flooding.

“We feel we are in a position now to reach closure on this controversial proposed dinosaur of a project authorized in 1941 that was designed to protect agriculture more than people and homes,” Grumbles said.