EPA sued over flood control on Yazoo Backwater Project

EPA sued over flood control

The levee board, made up of representatives from several Mississippi counties, wants to move forward with the Yazoo Backwater Project, a proposal to build a pump station to drain wetlands, farmland and forests north of Vicksburg when the Mississippi River is high.

Congress authorized the Mississippi Delta project in 1941 but didn’t fully fund it. The EPA vetoed the Yazoo pump aspect of the project in August 2008, saying it would destroy wetlands, water quality and habitat for threatened species.

The lawsuit challenges the agency’s authority to stop the project.

Clarion Ledger
8/12/9