As far as I know, Biden hasn’t approved the pumps; the Corps is reviewimg public comment on the environmental impact statements, and the EPA will need to review those. Certainly though administration officials have expressed more sympathy. The sense I got from the last meetings I attended (in 2022, I think) was that the overwhelming local support for the pumps, and the real devastation suffered in 2019, made officials feel like some path forward had become necessary.
Hi Boyce, thank you for your response. The support for the pumps seems to revolve around the desire to preserve farmland for continued agriculture. I was just curious if you also get the feel that agriculture is the primary factor in the delta for the pumps?
It depends on who you're talking to. It's true that agriculture will be the primary beneficiary, economically, of the pumps. But I think there are some people -- like Anderson Jones, who I spoke with for the story linked below, and who appears in my book -- who understandably want their homes protected. There are patches of land that go back generations, and that mean a ton to families; some people feel like this is basically an inter-generational homeland under threat. So I think that's motivating some support for the pumps, and may be a factor causing Biden's administration to feel like they have to do something. It certainly complicates the path forward; "home" is a powerful magnet and it's difficult to tell people that, despite a longstanding proposed solution that might help their homes, they have to pick up and move on. https://southerlymag.org/2019/10/10/the-promise-of-the-yazoo-pumps/
I’ll have to do more reading, but why not remove the levees if that’s the flooding issue? Because of downstream interests? The imagery of the dead animals reminds me of stories I heard when I worked in the central Everglades, when the WCAs were flooded because SFWMD wouldn’t open the gates to let the water flow south, tree islands were flooding and deer were trapped on the higher ones or levees. IIRC what I was told correctly, the Miccosukee tribe ended up putting out deer feed on the levees because it got so bad.
There's two potential directions of flooding: precipitation draining off the Yazoo Basin from the north, and backwater flooding pushing up from the Mississippi to the south. If you remove the levees, the region becomes vulnerable to the latter.
I've never seen modeling as to what 2019 might have been like without the levees, since removing them isn't something anyone is seriously contemplating. I'd guess the flooding might have been slightly less catastrophic but still extensive. And there'd be small-scale flooding during many Mississippi flood years.
Any idea as to why Biden approved the pumps given how against it the EPA previously was? And why the EPA is suddenly on board as well?
As far as I know, Biden hasn’t approved the pumps; the Corps is reviewimg public comment on the environmental impact statements, and the EPA will need to review those. Certainly though administration officials have expressed more sympathy. The sense I got from the last meetings I attended (in 2022, I think) was that the overwhelming local support for the pumps, and the real devastation suffered in 2019, made officials feel like some path forward had become necessary.
Hi Boyce, thank you for your response. The support for the pumps seems to revolve around the desire to preserve farmland for continued agriculture. I was just curious if you also get the feel that agriculture is the primary factor in the delta for the pumps?
It depends on who you're talking to. It's true that agriculture will be the primary beneficiary, economically, of the pumps. But I think there are some people -- like Anderson Jones, who I spoke with for the story linked below, and who appears in my book -- who understandably want their homes protected. There are patches of land that go back generations, and that mean a ton to families; some people feel like this is basically an inter-generational homeland under threat. So I think that's motivating some support for the pumps, and may be a factor causing Biden's administration to feel like they have to do something. It certainly complicates the path forward; "home" is a powerful magnet and it's difficult to tell people that, despite a longstanding proposed solution that might help their homes, they have to pick up and move on. https://southerlymag.org/2019/10/10/the-promise-of-the-yazoo-pumps/
I’ll have to do more reading, but why not remove the levees if that’s the flooding issue? Because of downstream interests? The imagery of the dead animals reminds me of stories I heard when I worked in the central Everglades, when the WCAs were flooded because SFWMD wouldn’t open the gates to let the water flow south, tree islands were flooding and deer were trapped on the higher ones or levees. IIRC what I was told correctly, the Miccosukee tribe ended up putting out deer feed on the levees because it got so bad.
What a disaster. I had no idea about it.
There's two potential directions of flooding: precipitation draining off the Yazoo Basin from the north, and backwater flooding pushing up from the Mississippi to the south. If you remove the levees, the region becomes vulnerable to the latter.
I've never seen modeling as to what 2019 might have been like without the levees, since removing them isn't something anyone is seriously contemplating. I'd guess the flooding might have been slightly less catastrophic but still extensive. And there'd be small-scale flooding during many Mississippi flood years.
We drove through Tchoula yesterday on the way back from STL - super informative/helpful read.