Barring any large bumps in the road, the Yazoo Backwater could be protected by a pump system as early as 2025’s wet season.
This same pump system was vetoed in 2007 by the Environmental Protection Agency, but the flood of more than 500,000 acres in 2019 changed some minds.
On Thursday, the Army Corps of Engineers issued a statement of intent to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Yazoo Basin Reformulation Study, Yazoo Backwater Area.
According to Mississippi Levee Board Chief Engineer Peter Nimrod, officials from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection agency began working in October 2019 to draft a document restating the impact a pump system would have in alleviating flooding in the South Delta.
In 2007, the EPA vetoed the construction of the pump system for perceived negative affects to the environment.
The flood in 2019 changed that perception.
“There’s an entire generation of small mammal population in the South Delta that’s just gone,” Nimrod said. “I don’t know how anyone could look at this place after the flood and say the pumps are an environmental problem.”
While the environmental impact is significant, so was the loss of two lives, more than 600 homes and hundreds of acres of farmland rendered unusable for the last growing season.
Nimrod knows there will be challenges from the what he calls environmental extremists when, as he expects, the full green light for pump construction is given in October, but said the with the EPA and Army Corps working together on the report, the system is more likely to see approval than last time.
He also factored in time to answer those inevitable lawsuits in the time frame of construction of the pump system.
While the flooding in the South Delta has not always been a regular occurrence, the last three years is proving otherwise.
As of Tuesday, there were 496,000 acres of land in the South Delta underwater and 200,000 of that is crop land. For these farmers, a second year without a crop is a distinct possibility.
If the trend holds, it would be the third year in a row for flooding in the South Delta.
Nimrod said the statement also is asking for public comment. Those comments, both for and against the construction of the pumps are vital the decision the EPA and Army Corps will make in October of this year.
Comments and questions regarding the supplement should be submitted to USACE by email to yazoobackwater@usace.army.mil; by phone to Kenneth Parrish at 601-631-5006; or by postal mail to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District, ATTN: CEMVK-PPMD, 4155 East Clay St., Room 248, Vicksburg, MS 39183. For additional information, including but not limited to a copy of the 2007 FSEIS, visit the project website at mvk.usace.army.mil/ Missions/ Programs-and-Project-Management/ Project-Management/ Yazoo-Backwater-Report/ .
The document, in its entirety can be viewed at ddtonline.com.
Project history
In 2020, Congress provided funding for environmental documentation. One of the authorized features, the Yazoo Backwater Levee, was completed in 1978 to reduce flood risks from Mississippi River. Though it prevents Mississippi River floodwaters from entering the Yazoo Backwater Area, it also prevents water from leaving the area, often trapping the water from the 4,093 square mile drainage area for extended periods of time.
This trapped water effectively creates an artificial lake that is uninhabitable by nearly all species. The historic 2019 flood inundated over a half million acres of the Yazoo Backwater Area from February to August.
The Yazoo Backwater area also has experienced significant flooding 9 out of the last 10 years. Aquatic species are acutely affected by low dissolved oxygen created by the stagnant conditions. Terrestrial species must flee or face mortality by the significant depth of the water and lack of food. The human population of the Yazoo Backwater Area also suffers significantly.
In 2019, hundreds were displaced from their flooded homes for over six months and the entire crop season was lost for farmers in the affected area. The effects on terrestrial and aquatic life were also devastating. The event would have been several feet lower and lasted for fewer months if the Yazoo Area Pump Project feature had been completed, averting impacts to both natural resources and reducing non-agricultural economic damages by more than 50%, and reducing damages to homes from flooding.
Other completed features of the Yazoo Backwater Project include the Steele Bayou, Little Sunflower and Muddy Bayou control structures along with a 15-mile-long connecting channel between the Steel Bayou and Little Sunflower Control Structures. These features were completed between 1969 and 1978.
The Yazoo Area Pump Project is the only feature of the Yazoo Backwater Project that remains unconstructed, and the Yazoo Backwater Area is the only major backwater area in the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project (MR&T) that does not have a pumping plant.
The Yazoo Area Pump Project has been extensively reformulated over the past six decades to balance flood risk reduction with environmental concerns. Previous recommended plans called for pumping nearly double the amount of water and activating the pumps at a much lower elevations in the Yazoo Backwater Area to address flooding.
The 2007 FSEIS Plan combined structural and nonstructural means to strike a balance of flood risk reduction and environmental effects.
The following is a brief summary of the timeline: In 1982 USACE filed an EIS for the Yazoo Area Pump Project. Construction was initiated in 1986 but was halted by WRDA 1986, which required construction and operation and maintenance to be cost shared by a non-federal sponsor. Guidance from OMB in fiscal year 1991 Budget Pass-backs directed the Corps to reformulate Yazoo Basin Projects to provide:
n Greater levels of flood protection to urban areas,
n reduce levels of agricultural intensification, and
n reduced adverse impacts to the environment.
In 1993, USACE filed a Notice of Intent to file a Supplemental EIS and initiated reformulation of the project according to the above guidelines. WRDA 1996 changed the cost sharing requirements back to those in the original authorization. In 2000, USACE released the draft SEIS for comment. In 2007, after completing additional analyses and revisions in response to comments, USACE completed the Final Report, which included the Reformulation Study and FSEIS. In August 2008 it was vetoed by the EPA under 404(c) of the Clean Water Act due to adverse environmental effects.
The notice filed by the Army Corps also includes a section on proposed actions:
“The Proposed Action is a new project proposal to complete the Yazoo Area Pump Project feature to alleviate the flood damage in the Yazoo Backwater Area. The structural component consists of a 14,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) pump activated at elevation 87 feet (ft). National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD). The proposed location being considered for the pumping station will be near Deer Creek in Warren County. The Proposed Action’s nonstructural component is to purchase easements from willing sellers on cleared agricultural lands below elevation 87 ft. NGVD and subsequent reforestation. A new environmental mitigation feature of the Proposed Action will be the installation of well fields adjacent to the Mississippi River levee upstream of the backwater area. The augmented flow will improve aquatic habitat, particularly for endangered mussel species. New data shows that previously calculated adverse impacts to wetlands in the 2007 FSEIS overestimated the potential impacts of the proposed pumping plant given available data at the time.”
