(Photo from Army Corps EIS)
- For nearly 83 years, Delta residents have been promised a solution was coming from the federal government. Now, the project appears within reach.
Extreme flooding in the Mississippi Delta in 2019 caused over $800 million in damages, flooding over 600 homes, ruining agricultural areas, and causing increased human health and safety risks. It lasted for nearly six months. Yet, it was not the first time such damaging flooding from the Mississippi River had taken its toll on one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.
For nearly 83 years, Delta residents have been promised a solution was coming from the federal government. After much wrangling, it now appears the Army Corps of Engineers is moving forward with a plan to assist the Yazoo Backwater Area.
On Friday, the Corps released the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), saying the Water Management Plan would reduce average annual flood risk to urban and agricultural areas through a combination of structural and nonstructural flood risk management features and would minimize adverse impacts through project design.
“This Water Management Plan represents a balanced and implementable approach to achieving flood risk management, and minimizing aquatic and wetland impacts in the Yazoo Backwater Study Area,” the Corps’ EIS stated.
The recommendations made in the plan include a combination of structural, operational, nonstructural, and functional environmental enhancement, and mitigation components, such as:
- A pump station with a maximum combined pumping capacity of 25,000 cfs, located near Steele Bayou, backwater managed at 90.0 Ft. during crop season and up to 93.0 Ft. during non-crop season.
- Thirty-four supplemental low flow groundwater wells be installed along streams in the northern portion of the Yazoo area.
- Owners of properties below 90-93 ft. elevation could be offered a voluntary acquisition of structures or a placement of restricted easement on agricultural lands. Homeowners or property owners could also be offered other nonstructural measures such as flood proofing or raising of structures if acquisitions are not chosen.
Buyouts could be offered to over 200 property owners of residential and commercial structures with relocation assistance potentially made available.
The release of the EIS comes after public engagement sessions were held last year seeking input from various individuals, groups, and organizations in the area. The sessions also included community leaders, local elected officials, agricultural interests, and environmental organizations, as well as the state’s federal delegation.
Army Corps publishes Notice of Intent to prepare Environmental Impact Statement for Yazoo Backwater area – Magnolia Tribune
Mississippi’s U.S. Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith welcomed the news from the Corps.
“This milestone would not have been possible without collaboration from Yazoo Backwater Area residents, homeowners, business owners, and farmers,” Senator Wicker said in a statement. “For decades, the government promised flood control solutions to the people of the South Delta.”
Wicker said the announcement puts the state one step closer to preventing further hardship, loss, and frustration in the region.
“It is time to finish the pumps,” he added.
Hyde-Smith agreed.
“A lot of work has gone into getting this final EIS, which puts us closer to seeing our goal on the horizon—namely getting to the Record of Decision that should allow us to finally get to work providing flood protection to the Yazoo Backwater Area,” Senator Hyde-Smith said in a statement. “With the Corps, EPA, and Fish and Wildlife Service all on the same page, we are closer to construction than we’ve been in a very long time. I strongly encourage those living in the Delta and elsewhere in Mississippi to push these federal agencies to finish the pumps.”
The Corps’ EIS states that the Water Management Plan improves the safety, security, and quality of life for the communities in the Yazoo Backwater area – a majority of which are considered disadvantaged and undeserved, and at the same time addresses other ongoing issues such as protecting transportation networks, power grid, and other vital infrastructure.
“Of the approximately 30,500 people living in census tracts in YSA, 80% are in undeserved and environmentally overburdened communities. Most residents are low-income and minority,” the EIS stated. “The study area is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world and is an area that is vital to both domestic and international food security. Per the Mississippi Department of Agriculture, the agriculture sector employees 17% of the states workforce, directly or indirectly, and is an $8.7 Billion dollar industry. The study area is within the top 10% of the U.S. agriculture production for catfish, rice, corn, and soybeans.”
The final EIS will be available to the public for 30 days and will close on December 30, 2024. To read the version released on Friday, click here.
Frank Corder
