Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Coalition Tries to Stop Yazoo Pumps

 Audubon Mississippi issued the following statement.

 A coalition of conservation organizations represented by Earthjustice, a legal non-profit, filed notice today that they intend to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), for violating the Endangered Species Act as part of the Corps’ rushed effort in the closing days of the Trump Administration to approve a massive drainage project in Mississippi’s South Delta commonly known as the Yazoo Pumps.

The George W. Bush Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stopped the destructive project citing unacceptable damage to some of the nation’s richest wetland and water resources.  In recent months, the Trump Administration hastily revived the Yazoo Pumps by illegally revoking EPA’s long-standing veto.  This effort included an attempt to sidestep the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by claiming that the project would not likely adversely affect the pondberry, a wetland plant federally listed as endangered. 

The Service, however, wholly disagreed based on its review of the best available science, and urged the Corps to fulfill its legal obligation by consulting with the Service to ensure the Pumps would not jeopardize the survival of the pondberry.  Instead, on January 15, 2021, the Corps disregarded its obligations under the ESA and issued a Record of Decision approving the project.

“The Corps disregarded the Fish and Wildlife Service’s repeated calls for formal consultation to ensure compliance with the Endangered Species Act,” said Earthjustice attorney Stu Gillespie. “Instead of complying with that bedrock environmental law and making a decision based on the science, the Corps recklessly approved this expensive, ineffective and destructive project.”

The Yazoo Pumps would drain tens of thousands of acres of ecologically rich wetlands that support over 450 species of fish and wildlife, including several federally listed species such as the endangered pondberry.  The pondberry is a key indicator of wetland health and land clearing and drainage activities have reduced its territory to bottomland hardwood forests of the Mississippi River’s alluvial valley.

“The Corps’ unlawful defiance of science at the expense of this globally significant area will not be tolerated,” said Jill Mastrototaro, Audubon Mississippi’s Policy Director. “The Pumps will degrade at least 39,000 acres of wetlands and over 80 percent of the Yazoo Backwater Area will continue to flood – clearly this a bad deal for birds, wildlife and local communities.”

The Yazoo Pumps project would involve construction of a 14,000 cubic feet per second pumping plant in the Yazoo Backwater Area to drain water, primarily from low-lying agricultural lands, during certain types of flood events to facilitate increased agricultural production on those lands.  Although authorized by Congress in 1941 to theoretically provide flood control, in 2007 the Corps admitted that 80 percent of the project’s benefits would be for agriculture.

Instead of the ineffective, antiquated Pumps, the conservation groups are calling for commonsense solutions to reduce flood risk using natural infrastructure and non-structural approaches that can help protect people’s lives, property and livelihoods.  These available measures include elevating homes and roads, and paying farmers to restore cropland back to wetlands.  (See: Alternative Flood Relief Solutions to the Yazoo Pumps)

 

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Build them or not.....it doesn't make a big rats ass to me any more.

Anonymous said...

The backwater pumps will not drain shit! They will kick on at a certain catastrophic level(elevation) where a majority of the south delta wetlands still experience flooding. It just makes it less catastrophic from an elevation perspective. It’s the difference between having 6” of water in your yard or 6’ of water in your house. The existing wetlands are low lying and will still get rejuvenated. They will not ever get “drained” and dry up due to the pumps as they at normal pool are at a lower elevation than the proposed elevation of the pumps kicking on in the backwater(protected) side of the levee. This is fear mongering 101. These hippies that live outside of the delta and have no stake in the are are putting more value on this berry than the peoples lives the floods effect. I wish we could find a list of the members of these environmental “clubs” and publish them so people who know who is against them. If you spent any time in the area during the floods you would know that loss of wildlife(starvation& displacement) and the introduction of farm chemicals, fuels, etc, as well as the property losses and displacement of people who live and work in the area, far outweighs the negatives of building the pumps, especially for some plants. The pumps WILL NOT drain anything and I welcome someone to tell me how they otherwise will.

Anonymous said...

8:10, EXCELLENT reply by someone that has actually read the real facts and thought for themselves. i don't live in that part of the Delta, but i do travel the area for work and have seen the damage and destruction tha tis caused by the backwater with my own eyes. if they won't build the pumps then the levee should be removed and return several hundred miles of river side to natural!

Anonymous said...

Conservative #1: "Less government!!! Less regulation!!!"

Conservative #2: "My corn is flooding!! Make the tax payers pay for some billion dollar pumps."

Conservative #1: "Lower taxes!! More freedom!!"

Conservative #2: "My hunting camp is flooding!! Make the tax payers pay for years to upkeep these billion dollar pumps so I can go hunting!!"

All you conservatives hate some big government right?

Anonymous said...

8:10 seems bipolar. Are they for the pumps or against the pumps? I’m for paying the property owners for their land. They can replace the cropland in areas that aren’t in a wetland or prone to the flooding. It would probably be cheaper than building pumps and maintaining them. For the ones that don’t farm, they should buy flood insurance and rebuild on an elevated foundation. But, it should be considered public property, similar to a National Forest. There are a whole bunch of folks who were displaced because of a hurricane. This displacement could be planned.

Anonymous said...

I thought Bennie Thompson had a lot of power in Washington.
You think he could just snap his fingers and the pumps would be installed. Or maybe he is taking money from both sides to stay out of the fray.

Anonymous said...

Why would an organization founded on enhancing and protecting bird habitat possibly be against reducing excessive flooding that kills trees and destroys habitat? I suppose this lawsuit will help them raise money from their uninformed members but it’s sad to see the once respected Audubon Society taking this sensational low road.

Anonymous said...

Not to mention the state and USF&W have massive blocks of some of the last remaining virgin hardwood bottomland left in the southeast that cannot stand multiple prolonged floods through hot months without sustaining damage. But they don’t want to talk about that, just pumps are bad.

9:01 the grown folks are talking. You have no idea what you’re talking about. The levees were built with promises of backwater pumps that never came. I supposed you have the same thoughts about New Orleans as well as other states up and down the river?

Anonymous said...

Grew up with a camp on north part of eagle lake.

For 25 years I was never stopped from enjoying the lake or the Lo Sto due to flooding.

The fact that it floods sometimes is not reason enough to spend this kind of money.

Buy the low land / houses from owners and move on.

Lake Bruin is much prettier.

Anonymous said...

"Build them or not..it doesn't make a big rats ass to me any more. February 9, 2021 at 8:03 PM"

Of course it doesn't, since you don't live in the area affected, don't farm there, don't have a business there and aren't inconvenienced by the closing of highways on an annual basis.

No doubt toll-roads in Florida and coastal cave ins out in California don't make a rat's ass to you either. But, I'm bettin' you read articles about which kind of BBQ sauce is best when paired with an Ice Cold Heineken during an Old Myth game.

Anonymous said...

8:10 PM makes excellent points. With additional information I’ve changed my opinion (in this case) from “if you buy property in a flood area, expect that area to flood”

since it “appears” (someone correct this if wrong) the F’ing Feds, in typical Fed fashion, created this mess in the first place by building levees on both sides of said area thereby preventing the water to spread “naturally” (again, someone correct this if wrong).

8:59 PM, too late for that but think we agree we all should agree that the Mississippi River levees never should have been built in the first place, as well as the levees protecting New Orleans, etc., etc., etc.

9:00 PM, you make a good point; except for using the word conservative. No F’ing such thing anymore and one only needs to look into the PPP SCAM that no reporter in this country has the integrity or guts to explain to Americans.

If you think getting government welfare for hunting camps is something, do a little 2+2 research and find out how many Republicans had their net worths increased by multi-millions of $$$ via federal government welfare that THEY DID NOT EVEN NEED (their hypocritical silence is deafening).

But 9:00 PM, do refer to the point made above re: the “Feds” i.e. government created this damed mess in the first place.

Anonymous said...

@8:10-I bet the millions of members of these environmental groups are shaking in their boots worrying about you getting a list of names.Why don’t you go protest their headquarters and see how the rest of the world views you and those like you.Be sure to carry your confederate flag. Hippies???? really are you that behind. Do you get your world views at the Lo Sto while eating your viennas and cracker lunch?

Anonymous said...

8:24 values a plant more so that the people that call the south delta home. Hippies is a relative term, but if you do some digging, I bet 8:10 isn't far off. Would you prefer we use the term granola, naturalist? I have never met a person belonging to one of these conservation clubs that wouldn't fit that description. But you cant see that with your high and mighty attitude.

Anonymous said...

12:17 Your silly comment proves you aren’t one of the grown up people you’re referring to. Yes, displacement happens all the time. I could care less if New Orleans sinks. Nature always prevails. Doesn’t mean I like it.

Anonymous said...

Surely all of you experts who aren't in favor of the pumps are aware of the fact that Mississippi is the only state along the Mississippi River system that DOES NOT HAVE the needed pumps.

It's not about hunting camps or keeping water out of the bean field once every six years. Ignorance is present in great numbers on this thread. And the ignorant are the same ones who chant "What's a few turds floating south out of Jackson on the Pearl?"

Anonymous said...

When will the Audubon nuts take a cue from the PETA nuts . . . (and publish a naked women calendar) ?

I envision some semi-neck'id Hollywood types sitting on a pump while they say:

" I don't wear fur, and these pumps will disrupt many squirrel families ".


Anonymous said...

@926 and 1030. Next time you are in civilization ask a neutral party about how much influence your attitude and calling people you disagree with you ignorant , hippies and granola naturalist has a chance in influencing anyone.The Delta Council and Levee Board needs to send their staff and supporters to charm school if they want the rest of the world to take them seriously. Suppose you give one name that is opposed to the pumps that has chanted “what’s a few turds floating south of Jackson on the Pearl”

Anonymous said...

The government could buy every inch of the land for much less than the cost of the pumps.

Psycho said...

Out of curiosity I looked to see if any of the concerned parties, or anyone for that matter, had pondberry plants for sale. I could not find a single source selling pondberry plants. The government seems willing to do studies, count the plants growing, and see how they are spread, but not establish a single source of plants to put in the ground. I seems as if there is more concern about the fight than the plant itself.

Anonymous said...

The government could buy every inch of the land for much less than the cost of the pumps.

Proof? Link?

Anonymous said...

What part of the USACOE created this issue and promised the pumps to deal with the flooding they created do people not see? Supposed an interstate highway was built close to your home, your family’s several hundred acre farm, and detrimental flooding started occurring and people were saying “ah screw him, the govt should just buy it so we don’t have to fix the problem”? I’m sure someone will come back with a smart comment as they don’t own anything like that, but I bet they wouldn’t be as eager to give up and start over. We’ll send millions overseas for gender studies in Pakistan but won’t fix a govt created issue in our own back yards that puts food on our tables and people to work and tax money in the coffers.

Anonymous said...

If the majority of the above posters live in the tri county area, there’s a very good chance their properties are benefactors of some degree of flood control, i.e. NE Jackson and Rankin county reclaimed swamp. Say what you want, but the feds didn’t hold up their end of the Steele Bayou bargain. The result is a bathtub without an auxiliary drain.

Anonymous said...

Hope that group doesn’t have a benign fundraiser planned in the near future. Bunch of badly informed, easily manipulated rednecks might decide to plan a big boycott, and threaten attendees to the event. Maybe get the Ag Czar to step in and have a tractor pull instead.


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