Jackson Jambalaya

Mitigation was defined in legal terms but not in environmental terms. The history of the man made changes to the river must be understood. If you cannot properly assess the failure of the past engineering, you cannot correct it. The one lake starts at Lakeland Drive which is the obvious bottleneck caused by the tight levee footprint. The lake will be a huge toilet bowl averaging thirty feet deep with no natural features or aquatic life.

Article from: http://bradreeves.blogspot.com/

When John McGowan et al was pushing Two Lakes in 2006.
Excerpt:

"The Rankin/Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District is working in conjunction with Waggoner Engineering and other interested developers like McGowan and Mississippi Development Authority Director Leland Speed to end Jackson’s flood problems by caging the river.

The project is currently known as LeFleur Lakes, though some residents knew the project as Two Lakes or Twin Lakes, as developers have called it through the years. The current plan, similar to past versions, calls for two underwater dams beneath the Pearl, one almost directly under I-55 and another beneath Interstate 20, which would flood the shallow wetlands and create two lakes. Developers would also like to dredge the river mud, deepening the proposed lakebeds and dropping the resulting dredge in the middle of one lake, forming an island that McGowan says will bring in remarkable lakefront development. The plan also features bigger levees intended to protect the endangered floodplain.

McGowan has considerable faith in the project, having gone so far as to buy property along what could potentially be the Jackson side of the upper lake, in the northern portion of the city.

“Jackson is in serious need of new business, and this project would be a windfall for it,” McGowan said. “The city has been sitting by while businesses go to the suburbs and I, for one, would like to change that. The island inside the top lake, by itself, will be a magnet for development. You’ll see that area explode with development where there wasn’t any before. Who wouldn’t (see the benefit in) that?”

The Rankin/Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District has big aspirations, and with many wealthy parties taking an interest, it has big money as well. The two-year Draft Environmental Impact Study with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was funded by the organization, cost $2.8 million, but McGowan says the whole project is affordable.

“I think it would cost about $130 million,” McGowan said. “For what it accomplishes, I think it’s a great investment.”

Less conservative estimates submitted by McGowan put the project at $173 million, but Robert Jones, a biologist at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, says any figure submitted so far is “only a small part of the whole possible cost.”

“I’ve heard that this thing is going to be substantially more than that. He’s probably just talking bout the dirt work. When you look at all the things that are going to have to be moved, including highways and pipes, an old city landfill, and other things, then $130 million is going to be pocket change compared to what will really be needed,” Jones said.

“What’s interesting to me," Jones continued, "is that you’ve got a lot of backers for the project, but a lot of the people pushing it stand to make substantial financial gains by owning the island. Why would the Corps allow private ownership of property within one of their boundaries? They don’t do that normally. In fact, the Corps is good for taking land through eminent domain for their projects, not handing it over to private owners.”

hey, bottleneck guy.

see if you can figure out how you are arguing against yourself. the "tight levee footprint" down river is the cause of the bottleneck, not lakeland drive or anything above.

your slip is that you succinctly state that the project will be like a bowl, removing the bottle neck.

your intellectual dishonest really starts showing good color when you attempt to say there will be no aquatic life or asserting that "natural formations" are a requirement for such.

and that museum guy needs to keep to biology. he's out of his depth on this one and his opinion on the subject is about as valid as my 3 year old son's

...and your opinion on the subject is about as worthless as is the 3 year old.
I wonder how much $ you have invested in the hopes that the project will be approved.
Hindsight is 20/20, ya know. There's nothing like wishing you could undo something when it turns out you made a bad decision. I'll bet you've made many of those.
Your temper-tantrum is showing. Time for your nap.

I have invested zero monies.

Nice straw man attempt, though.

Hinds sight isn't 20/20. It's pretty obtuse. But, I do wish someone would undo the bad decision to levee the pearl, instead of spreading her out over a lower lake.

Mr. Jones, why so angry?

Jackson is a dump...The two lakes is a dream by some property owners who will only benefit. I say leave the river alone. The tax payers of Mississippi will be funding this dream of a few wealthy land owners along the river.

The question is, 'which of these used car salesmen should we trust?'

Petty jealousies, that's why Jackson will never amount to much. Everyone is so worried that someone else may make a buck that they won't do what is in the best interest of the city as a whole.

7:54 has answered the 'used car salesman' question. It is HE we should trust. Ignore history and your gut and go with the landowners' advice. Or just go with Ben Allen's take on it. He's in every-damn-body's hip pocket.

7:54

The whole area has been held stagnant because of petty jealousies.

Everyone is worried that someone else will make money, regardless of the benefit.

Boogeyman arguments, straw man arguments, intellectual dishonesty, obfuscation.... it's no wonder this area develops a decent crop of politicians. It's just the way of life, not that far removed from Washington, D.C.

@1:22 am, 7:54 pm here. Thank you for illustrating my point.

Looks like 1:22 AM needs to put down the bottle and get some sleep (and a life, while he is at it).

"...needs to get a life"? Sounds as if 1:22 struck somebody's last nerve. That spotlight is blinding, ain't it, 10:00 a.m.?

That same light is blinding 7:54 AKA 9:07. The only ones we hear chirping for this lake-scam are the same ones who stand to benefit and have done it for years.

The 'expert' that appeared on Ben Allen's radiocast the other day answered a caller by lying and saying, "Oh no, there will be no board or agency or oversight body that will usurp any of the municipalities' power to control this project before, during or after completion'. Right, who is stupid enough to believe three municipalities will have equal control and operational voice in this project with no over-ride authority from a governing body?

So, here we go back to the car-salesman analogy. 'Our car will have the highest resale value of any on the market if you buy it' and our 'service after the sale' is the best in town.

Yawn. Ssssnnnnooooorrrreee.