Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Dooming the Delta

 The EPA killed the Yazoo pumps project. The agency announced on its website today:

Today, EPA transmitted a letter to the Army for Civil Works regarding the Yazoo Pumps Project. In the letter, EPA explains that the 2020 Proposed Plan for the Yazoo Pumps Project is prohibited by EPA’s 2008 Clean Water Act Section 404(c) Final Determination. Flooding in the Yazoo backwater area is a significant problem and EPA is committed to continue working with the Army Corps of Engineers and all partners to identify effective and enduring solutions that support communities in the Yazoo backwater area.

“Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to visit the Yazoo backwater and see the truly challenging dynamic there. We must ensure that protecting people, preserving natural systems, and supporting agriculture are all part of the solution,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan.EPA understands the urgency and is ready to work with its federal partners and local stakeholders on a transparent process to find a solution to flooding in the Yazoo backwater area that is both durable and environmentally protective.”

This action supersedes a portion of a November 30, 2020 letter from EPA to the Army Corps of Engineers asserting that the 2020 Proposed Plan was not subject to the 2008 Clean Water Act 404(c) action. Statement

 Mississippi's senators were none too pleased by the decision. Sen. Roger Wicker called it "environmental injustice":

I am deeply frustrated the EPA has chosen to reverse its guidance on the Yazoo Backwater Pumps and leave the people of the South Mississippi Delta in harm’s way.

The federal government authorized the pumps 80 years ago, but the project has been held up by bureaucrats and red tape ever since.

Today’s action means that roads will continue to be impassable, deer and other wildlife and plant life will die, hypoxia will kill fish, small businesses will shut down, and residents will continue to be forced to leave their houses.

In fact, 94% of the homes that this project would save from the 100-year floodplain are minority-occupied. It amounts to an environmental injustice.

While Senator Cindy Hyde – Smith called out Congressman Bennie Thompson:

This is an absolutely terrible day for the people who live in the Mississippi Delta and an even sadder day for the country when an agency like the EPA refuses to do the right thing for the people.  I also give credit where credit is due.  Congressman Bennie Thompson destroyed this project, taking one position in his district but working against it in Washington.

“This EPA action is an abuse of discretion and couldn’t be more arbitrary or capricious.  It also opens the door to a host of legal questions that should, and will likely, be challenged.

Link to EPA letter.


60 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where the hell is Bennie?

Anonymous said...

This Regan guy and Bennie musta found a way to do some fleecing.

Anonymous said...

But I thought it was the MS Wildlife Federation that was the one stopping the pumps?

Anonymous said...

Bennie say "Just give me the rest of Jackson and I'll be fine."

Anonymous said...

Bennie: https://yallpolitics.com/2021/11/17/congressman-bennie-thompson-kills-yazoo-pumps-project-with-help-from-biden-epa/

Anonymous said...

Cindy is looking more and more like a real senator and less and less like an empty suit (or dress).

Good for her.

Anonymous said...

At a fish fry?

Anonymous said...

Bennie is an arrogant, racist, self-interested lout, but I want him there in Washington. When he goes out AOC-clone Lumumba may go in.

Better to have Baby Chok destroy Jackson than to have him destroy the entire nation.

Anonymous said...

Bennie is too busy being the big man on campus in charge of that insurrection committee. He's sending out subpoenas and chasing down them bad boys.

Anonymous said...

The EPA failed the Delta and failed Jackson.

Anonymous said...

Biden's America-

Anonymous said...

But, but, but LIBRUHLS are the party the poor and disenfranchised...

Anonymous said...

Bennie just picks up farmers checks in the delta. He doesnt actually "do" what he says he will do.

Anonymous said...

This project has been around a long, long time. Where was Bush 1, Bush 2 and Trump when they were in charge? Trump approved it at the last minute. Why didnt her or the Bushs approve it earlier? Typical Republicans, blaming everyone but themselves. Speaking of which, has ANYONE blamed Trump yet for losing the two Senate seats in Georgia? All that guy had to do was shutup for a couple of weeks. Instead, he campaigns in Georgia for the Senators and complains about his "stolen" election. The Dems won the Georgia Senate seats for one reason and one reason only: the inability of Trump to just STFU. I blame Trump for getting us in the mess we're in with these unaffordable socialist bills the Dems are jamming down our throats simply because he lost Georgia.

Anonymous said...

.."Could all the Democrats in Congress be charged with violating / exploiting a vulnerable adult" (Biden)??????

Anonymous said...

3:01 - check your history. Bush 1 and Bush 2 both tried to push the pump, but the federal courts held it back.

But yes, some have spoken out about Trump being the fault of where we are now with trillions and trillions of spending by the all Democrat congress. I for one did at the time and repeatedly since. Yes, if he had STFU at least one of the GA Senate seats (Purdue) would still be held in the Republican hands giving them the ability to stop a lot (not all) of the current idiocy.

So, by my grading - your comment gets a 50%

Anonymous said...

Bennie Thompson has never had an original thought in his life. He is just a lap dog for Nancy and the NAACP. A true blue raciest but in todays society, that's ok if your a democrat.

Anonymous said...

Few more overtly racist acts nationally than to force continual flooding upon one of the poorest and blackest Congressional districts in this nation.

Anonymous said...

When the time comes Bennie will bring out the fried chicken and catfish along with the alcohol. All will be well and he will go right back in. Useless asshole.

Anonymous said...

"Where the hell is Bennie?" Anywhere except in Mississippi.

Anonymous said...

If the pumps work then black folks will continue to live there. Ain't that right Ben Ben ? Lol, Democrats herding sheep in a special way. This agenda works way better once you got everyone all crammed up in the cities. It's a LONG game you see.

Anonymous said...

Now that Biden is against the pumps, I am for the pumps, where are they?

Anonymous said...

No one really knows the impact of making these massive changes. I’m not sure what Cindy and Wicker’s motivations are, but I guarantee it’s not to help the impoverished residents of the delta.

Anonymous said...

Wow. There's more to this turn of events than are being publicly disclosed.

Anonymous said...

Possibly more Infrastructure money for Bennie's pockets? My friend thinks so.

Anonymous said...

Bennie herding Delta sheep into Jackson makes as much sense as Jackson electing a total greenhorn with zero experience in anything to serve as Mayor.

Anonymous said...

Bennie just called out ole confederate Cindy on the local news ….” I want to see her evidence” she’s not going to shut up and she can’t put up. Let’s make sure she and all the others who were against the Infrastructure bill are reminded at every ribbon cutting they attend!

Anonymous said...

Is this NOT fucking infrastructure? We live in clown world

Anonymous said...

The pumps are not infrastructure

It will help about 500 people and cost billions.

Cheaper to buy them all another house in a shitty far infested bar pit

Anonymous said...

Benny has a problem paying his county taxes. I know someone who bought some of his delinquent Madison county tax obligations. He made them good after 3 years.

Anonymous said...

The pumps are the longest running joke in Mississippi going on 80 years now. They would benefit a few dozen big farmers and a few hundred workers who live in the middle of nowhere. It would be cheaper to buy every property in the entire county than to build the pumps. Politicians in both parties have known for 80 years they would never be built. Pretending to support them sounds good in the Delta.

Anonymous said...

@5:16: because wealthy Republican donors can’t get to and use their multimillion dollar hunting camps and lodges when the South Delta is flooded. To be frank, I’m increasingly Republican leaning and wish I was one of em paying $500k to over a million a share to be in one of the high dollar share clubs in Issaquena (least populated county east of the MS and 3rd least populated overall with 1800 residents) and other South Delta counties. I would be interested to hear how many total PERMANENT residents are affected by the pumps or lack thereof. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a number. But the above is why I believe you see mostly sportsman’s groups (again, I’m in those too) clamoring for the pumps more so than low income black residents. Doesn’t that Van Dever guy or however you say it, that is a major donor, own like 50,000 acres or something crazy like that up that way?

Anonymous said...

William Faulkner described the Delta as "a mad and pointless merry-go-round […]: the timber which had to be logged and sold in order to deforest the land in order to convert the soil to raising cotton in order to sell the cotton in order to make the land valuable enough to be worth spending money raising dykes to keep the River off of it."

A small set of perennially whining rich guy farmers stands to collect even more GubMint welfare in this project, after getting 200 Million Dollars in it over the last 20 years.

The difference being that Miss. farmers used to pay for levees, as Faulkner described. Now, like slavery, they expect other folks to pay their costs of doing business in a Swamp.

Even after collecting record payoffs last year in the election year and trade fiasco.

Anonymous said...

A trillion for infrastructure. Just not infrastructure we need. You know, stuff like gender sensitivity training at infrastructure companies. Important stuff like that.

Anonymous said...

Figuratively, and now quite literally - Mississippi will forever be a "backwater" until its citizens have said "Enough!" and only then.

Anonymous said...

Bennie doesn't care if black people flood? Guess not, since they can still vote if they drown.

Yazoo Lumps said...

“The Yazoo Lumps project was a bad idea 80 years ago when it first reared its ugly head and has been appropriately deemed so by republican and democratic administrations until Trump came along. The reason is because the pumps will still allow most of the area to food. And, there are better, cheaper and more sustainable ways to provide relief to those who suffer from flooding, however those solutions do not resolve the political problem for the politicians who care more about subsidizing wealthy farmers with millions of our tax dollars. Now is the time for all those who truly care about resolving the flooding to come together and implement those solutions such as relocation, raising roads and bridges and other things that will actually resolve the problem”

Hippo Cryte said...

Congressman Thompson has been consistent about the Pumps. If you want to find out who is saying one thing In Washington and then singing a different tune back home, look at the Congressional votes on the bipartisan infrastructure bill just passed by the Congress. Watch to see if the Mississippi Senators and Representatives who voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill will run back home to brag about Mississippi getting over a billion dollars in infrastructure funding for such things as repairing faulty dams, etc. And watch to see how many refuse that funding

Anonymous said...

@830pm—you are exactly right.If the original plan that was conjured up 80 years ago was laid on the table today no intelligent person would support turning rivers into ditches and forcing unnatural flooding on the south delta.It is very sad that so many of the politicians over the years—democrats and republicans —have used the poor black folks as bait.Ask yourself why they are living in low lying areas that historically flood instead of high cotton ground or haven’t been relocated to elevations similar to the plantation homes that never flood.

Anonymous said...

The pump debacle is just something to pad somebody's pocket at the expenses of the taxpayers. Sen. Wicker brags about all the money that he brought to the table for Mississippi, that's in the Trillion Dollar Spending bill, and then in the same breath, says all this profligate spending, by the other side, is bringing on rampant inflation. All of them are hypocrites and need to be voted out. At least the Dem's are up front and honest about how they want to spend the country into the poorhouse. The repukicants are just a bunch of opportunists looking for ways to pad their owners pockets while pretending to be looking out for the taxpayers.

Anonymous said...

Racist white Democrats knew all along the plan was to flood the black Mississippi Delta.

Black Democrat Thompson seeks the geographic expansion of his district reach using Delta depopulation as the vehicle to achieve that goal.

Merriam Webster said...

Infrastructure definition -"the system of public works of a country, state, or region". Yes. class. It is infrastructure, but is not the type funded under the infrastructure bill.

Kingfish said...

Okay, enough with the comments about BVD. Quit looking for every excuse to insert him into the conversation.

Anonymous said...

This is what happens when the right palms don't get the grease, right?

Unknown said...

Never mind. I just figured out the initials.

Anonymous said...

Kingfish, if you don't think BVD is very much behind this and pulling strings, you are mistaken. He has a large stake to buy up land cheap. He has the money to influence very influential political leaders. He was very influential in the state buying the Anderson Tulley land as he bought the saw mill. We will see how it all plays out over time, but it will eventually all be tied together. Watch, and remember this comment.

Anonymous said...

If your farm is 95 ft above sea level, you don't need a huge government pump.

Anonymous said...

1:40 that is basically writing everything off from hwy 16 south to the hills of Vicksburg as useless. Including Panther Swamp NWR and Delta National Forest, the largest block of hardwood bottomland timber in the USA. These enviro groups don't think about the animals displaced in those areas, the damage to the trees being submerged over that time period and in the heat, the chemical and petrol products in the water. Nope, the don't think about those things at all. What they are thinking about, I have no clue.

Krusatyr said...

EPA: "Dey don't need no stinkin pumps"

Live on stilts, build by-oh canals deep enough for pirogues for fishin and goin to town. Plant Cypress trees and Tupelos along canal-ways. Learn some Fiddle, Accordion, Rub Board and Spoon Slappin.

Cast your net, catch Jeanette, make some babies. Ahhh-Yeee!


Anonymous said...

If your farm is below 90 ft above sea level, you should be catfish farming. The level of the 2019 backwater flood was 93.3 ft, sixty seven homes flooded, and 67,000 acres of farmland. USDA should offer buyouts or put them into a special subsidy program to experiment with hemp production.

Anonymous said...

Put the pump by the meat packing plant and let Magnolia Venture Capitol manage it. Maybe all the prison time is up.

The research to spend tax dollars was equally well vetted.

Geez!

Anonymous said...

Kingfish is a top-water observer and has zero knowledge regarding the entire pump issue....including the tentacles of VanDevender (tate's finance boy and Archie's roommate) into the whole shit show.

Whoever is paid to feed Kingfish information on this subject is overpaid.

Anonymous said...

“The original Yazoo Backwater Project included drainage structures and pumps at the Little Sunflower River, Deer Creek and Steele Bayou. In order to be cost effective, the Connecting Channel was constructed and completed in 1978 to connect the Big and Little Sunflower Rivers, Deer Creek and Steele Bayou to bring water from 4093 sq. miles of the Delta to one point at the Steele Bayou Drainage Structure where one pumping plant can be constructed.” By levying off the Mississippi River and forcing these flow courses to drain though one exit at Steele bayou which is closed off when the river is on flood causes the South Delta to become a toilet bowl for a larger portion of the delta. The pumps were historically part of the promise. If the pumps aren’t put in place then remove the rest of the levee system and let the flow courses drain where they originally drained into the river. Otherwise, build the pumps and give the south delta the protection it deserves and had before the levees were put into place which did indeed raise the level of the Mississippi River.

Unknown said...

@958pm—“remove the rest of the levee system and let the flow courses drain where they originally drained into the river.” Why would the powers that be want to quit fighting Mother Nature? Their budgets would shrink and the politicians couldn’t brag on all the pork they got for their wealthy contributors.Look at what happened in the Everglades. The government allowed the ecosystem almost collapse and are now spending billions to restore. It’s only money.
Radical Environmentalist

Anonymous said...

4:25 more than 500,000 acres of farmland were flooded and more than 67 houses. You know not what you speak of. Quit smoking the reefer and pay attention:

https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/final-report-survey-overlooked-costs-the-2019-backwater-flood-the-yazoo-mississippi#:~:text=These%20simultaneous%20high%20waters%20and%20record-setting%20precipitation%20throughout,hundreds%20of%20damaged%20homes%2C%20and%20three%20highways%20closed.

Anonymous said...

I make jokes on this but the reality is that you can't beat Mother Nature and her waterways. Just let it go back to it's original state. Folks who live in a flood zone KNOW they live in a flood zone. The media fuels this shit by giving the idiots who are flooded a platform to cry. Stop. The land gets farmed either way.

Anonymous said...

10:09AM, clearly you do not understand the ecanomas of aggacultcha. Maybe when Ten Gallon Gipson catches all the pecan rustlers, he will issue a press release explaining how it all works. Or maybe a Schoolhouse Rock video - that might be better for the literacy-impaired...

Anonymous said...

@954–take the 67 houses (trailers in some cases) and pay them $150K each to move and you have spent $10,050,000. Maybe they can buy Louise or some of the other dying Delta towns and build deluxe condos and pay the people who live there to pick up all the trash..AS far as the 500,000 (nice round number) of crop land—well its still there and crops were made again this year.

Anonymous said...

Some Miss. River flooding is caused by shallows that build up near the mouth of Red River. The lower river below New Orleans is another part of the river that needs dredging. Levees and pumps are not the sole way to reduce flooding.
The confluence of the Red River is backwater because its a bowl where the Black River and the Red empty into the Miss. River. The lower delta (Issaquena County) is also a bowl which is where the Sunflower, Steel Bayou, and Deer Creek empty into the Yazoo River within 15 miles of each other. The county seat, Mayersville, is situated on the highest elevation in the county at 107 ft. The part lower Yazoo delta should be wetlands designed by the nature of the place.
I remember stopping on the approach of the bridge at Valley Park and listening to the heavy chorus of frogs.

Anonymous said...

December 28, 2021 - Corps of Engineers withdraws the Yazoo Pump Project.
https://www.enr.com/articles/53279-corps-pulls-support-for-massive-mississippi-valley-pumps-project



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