Yazoo Pumps Get Dumped

A half century ago, members of the Mississippi Wildlife Federation (MWF), an NWF affiliate, set out to defeat the costly Yazoo Pumps Project that threatened wetland resources in the state’s Delta region. In the years that followed, they met with officials, penned editorials and took legal action. Gathering allies in the fight was also central to their battle strategy, says Gerald Barber, MWF past president and former chair of NWF’s board of directors: “It doesn’t matter who gets the credit, just so long as we win.”

That sought-after victory finally came in late August when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) vetoed the Yazoo Pumps under the Clean Water Act, putting an end to the federal boondoggle conceived by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back in 1941. More than 45,000 citizens, including 5,874 NWF volunteer activists, called on the EPA to “dump the pumps” during a public comment period last spring, accounting for 99.9 percent of the feedback received. And for the first time since the project’s inception, testimonials of Yazoo opponents outnumbered those of supporters at an EPA hearing about the veto in April.

Proposed for construction just north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Yazoo Pumps would have drained more than 200,000 acres of wetlands—an area roughly the size of New York City—to help make more land available for crop production. Wealthy agribusiness owners who stood to reap the most rewards lobbied hard for the project for decades. “They claimed the Delta as their own, while asking for our money,” says Barber. “But the environment is for all of us.”

George Sorvalis, manager of NWF water resources campaigns and coordinator of the Corps Reform Network, credits diverse groups advocating for conservation and fiscal responsibility for helping to sway EPA’s decision-making. The veto, which is only the 12th in the agency’s history, ensures that Delta wetlands will continue to boost water quality, reduce the impacts of flooding and provide critical habitat to a diverse array of fish and wildlife species, including one of the largest gatherings of wintering waterfowl in the country. It also saves American taxpayers more than $220 million.

“Faith-based, civic, community and youth organizations came together with environmental groups to change the course of history in the Mississippi Delta,” says Sorvalis. “With the Yazoo project threat now behind us, the door opens up to some new opportunities—the potential to grow a local economy that emphasizes the value of these tremendous wetlands resources.” See http://www.corpsreform.org/.