Trump EPA weighs reviving massive Mississippi flood project

Source: Associated Press

Trump EPA weighs reviving massive Mississippi flood project

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER AND JEFF AMY
April 3, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Mississippi’s governor toured massive flooding in the state, the Trump administration said Wednesday that it is giving another look to a long-dead flood control and drainage project in the Mississippi Delta that had been killed by the George W. Bush administration because of its potential impact on wetlands and wildlife.

The project, which the late Sen. John McCain once called “one of the worst projects ever conceived by Congress,” had called for huge pumps to be built at the confluence of the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers in Mississippi. It was rejected by the Bush administration in 2008.

“Had that veto not occurred, we believe that the flooding, particularly in the Yazoo backwater, would have been much less damaging,” said Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, after touring the region by helicopter.

Opponents say the pumps could worsen flooding downstream.

After touring the flooded region, Bryant told journalists that he had spent Monday and Tuesday in Washington, lobbying the administration to override the 2008 EPAs decision to kill the project. On Wednesday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler confirmed to a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that his agency is now reconsidering that 2008 decision.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/3540932f3d1047c6ab191ad95a06602c