Environmental Defense Fund, American Rivers Back EPA Decision to Stop Construction of Yazoo Pumps

Contact:
Sharyn Stein, Environmental Defense Fund, (202) 572-3396, [email protected] 
Garrett Russo, American Rivers,202-243-7073, [email protected]

(Vicksburg, MS - April 17, 2008) – Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and American Rivers experts testified in favor of blocking the Yazoo Backwater Area Project at a public hearing tonight, with EDF’s expert calling the planned pumping station “bad for fish and wildlife, bad for water quality, and a poor use of taxpayer dollars.”

Brian Jackson, part of EDF’s Land, Water and Wildlife program staff, and Melissa Samet, Senior Director of Water Resources for American Rivers, joined scientists, environmental activists, and Mississippi residents in opposing the plan. Another 14,000 EDF members have written letters to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers strongly opposing the Yazoo Pumps project, and 28,000 people signed an EDF petition on the subject.
 
“Environmental Defense Fund commends the EPA for taking exactly the right steps in exercising its Clean Water Act authority to prevent this environmentally damaging project,” said Jackson. “This project will cause significant adverse impact to fish and wildlife and to water quality, will waste taxpayer money and will distract from the larger effort of restoring natural function to the Mississippi River delta.”
 
The Yazoo Backwater Area Project is a $220 million plan to build a massive pumping station that would move water out of part of the Mississippi River Delta. The project is supposed to prevent flooding in the area and uncover more land for farming, but in the process it would degrade more than 67,000 acres of wetlands in the Yazoo River Basin. The EPA announced that it would exercise its authority under the Clean Water Act to stop the project because of the adverse effects it would have on area fisheries, wildlife, and municipal water supplies. The EPA held a public hearing tonight at the Vicksburg Convention Center to discuss its plan to prohibit the Yazoo pumps.
 
“Thank goodness that the Environmental Protection Agency is living up to its name,” said Samet.  “The Yazoo Pumps have been have been a crazy idea since they were first concieved almost 70 years ago. It’s exciting to see that the plans for this project are one step closer to being put where they belong: the trash can.”
 
Jackson testified about the project’s negative impacts on Mississippi’s already dwindling Bottomland Hardwood Forests and the damage it would cause to 20,000 acres of land in four National Wildlife Refuges, the Delta National Forest, State Wildlife Management Areas and lands enrolled in US Department of Agriculture conservation programs. 
 
“It’s bad public policy to pay to protect lands, and then allow other federal projects to degrade them,” Jackson said.
 
He also talked about the negative impact on water quality and public health when wetlands are drained for agricultural development.
 
“Converting wetlands to farm land increases the likelihood of increased nutrient and pesticide runoff, and fewer wetlands mean less effective natural filtering capabilities,” said Jackson. “The water quality impacts have local consequences, pesticide runoff can affect drinking water supplies and nutrient runoff contributes to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone — impacting the region’s seafood industry.”
 
For full testimony or individual interview please contact Sharyn Stein at EDF, 202-572-3396 or [email protected].
 
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