JACKSON, Miss. - The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overturned a previously approved flood-control project in the south Mississippi Delta. EPA officials said the November 2020 approval was made in error in the final days of the Trump administration. In a letter to the Army for Civil Works, EPA officials said the 2020 decision to approve the Yazoo (Miss.) Pumps Project was in violation of the Clean Water Act and “failed to reflect the recommendations from the career scientists and technical staff.” The decision was cheered by conservation groups - American Rivers, National Audubon Society, Sierra Club and Healthy Gulf - which had sued the EPA, Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the construction of pumps in the Yazoo Backwater area north of Vicksburg. Mississippi's Republican senators denounced the decision. (Source: Jackson Free Press 11/19/21)
EPA Overturns Approval of Mississippi Yazoo Pumps Project | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MSant administrator for the office of water at the EPA, said the federal government is concerned about the serious impacts from flooding on people and the economy of the lower Mississippi Delta. But she said she wants to work with the Corps and others to find "a path forward that addresses flooding concerns in an environmentally protective manner.”
The decision was cheered by conservation groups — American Rivers, National Audubon Society, Sierra Club and Healthy Gulf — which had sued the EPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service earlier this year over the construction of pumps in the Yazoo Backwater area north of Vicksburg.Mississippi's Republican leadership denounced the decision.
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