Living Green

EPA weighs in against Mississippi flood project

A final showdown is looming over a decades-old plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a giant flood control system in the Mississippi River Delta following a key federal agency's decision to open a review that could lead to a veto of the project.

"We have reason to believe that the recommended project plan could result in unacceptable adverse effects on the aquatic ecosystem, particularly to fish and wildlife resources," Lawrence Starfield, deputy regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, wrote to Corps officials in a Feb. 1 letter formally initiating his agency's review.

"The Yazoo Backwater Area includes some of the richest wetland and aquatic resources in the Nation, including highly productive fisheries, (an)... increasingly rare bottomland hardwood forest ecosystem, hemispherically important migratory bird foraging grounds, habitat for endangered species and wetlands..." Starfield noted in the letter.

Corps officials could not be reached for comment Saturday, but the agency has long championed the project, which is commonly called "Yazoo Pumps" for a massive pumping station included in the plan. The agency says the project would control flooding in a six-county area near the Yazoo River in west central Mississippi.

Environmental groups who have battled the project for years were delighted at EPA's action, which they hope may ring a final death-knell for the controversial proposal sometime within the next year.

"One of the most environmentally disastrous ideas of the last half century is now one step closer to being thrown into the trash where it belongs," said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental advocacy group. "The Environmental Protection Agency has lived up to its name by showing the courage to stand up against this wasteful project."

The project dates back to the 1940s and covers a sprawling, table-flat region between the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers in the southern portion of the Mississippi Delta. The area includes some of the nation's richest farmland, made productive by sediment deposited by eons of flooding from the two rivers.

The periodic floods, however, devastated settlers in the region, who arrived in force in the 1800s, with a 1927 flood killing 500 people and leaving more than a half million homeless. Another flood in 1973 covered a large area in water.

Many residents back the project, but others say a series of levees the Corps built along the Yazoo River in the late 1970s has controlled the worst of the flooding.

Opponents claim the project is one of the least cost-effective and most damaging to the environment of any proposed by the Corps, saying its roughly $200 million price tag would mainly benefit a small number of wealthy farmers who would get large federal subsidies for crops raised on lands that would be opened to cultivation.

For years, Mississippi U.S. senators, Republicans Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, strongly backed the project. Lott retired at the end of last year to enter the lobbying business.

The latest round of controversy over the project dates to 2000, when the Corps released a new proposal that drew heavy fire from critics. The agency spent the last seven years rewriting its plan, which it says now balances flood control and economic benefits against environmental concerns.

The plan includes a proposal to plant new forests on about 40,000 acres of land now used for farming, and should return $1.40 in economic benefit for every dollar spent, the agency estimates.

The plan, however, has drawn criticism from both EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with environmental groups.

EPA officials say the new version does not differ substantially from the 2000 plan, and "environmental impacts continue to be highly significant," Starfield wrote in a Jan. 22 letter to the Corps submitted at the close of the public comment period on the proposal.

Had EPA not objected, the Corps could have moved forward with the project and perhaps begun construction this year, although environmental groups likely would have filed suit to halt it, said Melissa Samet, senior director of water resources for American Rivers.

The EPA review comes under the auspices of the Clean Water Act, which charges the agency with protecting the nation's waters and wetlands. The review process typically takes at least 6 months, Samet said, noting that EPA has only vetoed 11 projects in its history.

"It's our understanding that they would not have started this review if they felt the project was acceptable," she said. "This project would have huge impacts on an area the size of all five boroughs of New York City. It is exactly contrary to what the Corps and the nation needs to be doing to protect our national resources and effectively control flooding."

The review process will include public hearings and a public comment period. The agency's decision will be final and there is no appeal, meaning the project could only be revived by an act of Congress, Samet said.