WJTV-TV Jackson
Army Corps Head: Pumps ‘absolutely essential’
Local News
JACKSON, Miss (WJTV)— For years, people in the Mississippi Delta have been asking for some sort of relief from what appears to be annual flooding–right around the planting season.
Now, it seems the solution they wanted could be right around the corner.
During a hearing yesterday, Mississippi Senator Cindy-Hyde Smith argued that Mississippians and American taxpayers continue to be harmed by the federal government’s failure to finish all the flood control projects authorized under the Flood Control Act of 1941.
The Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, LTG. Todd Semonite, agreed — saying it’s time to finish the Yazoo backwater pumps.
“The Corps’ position is these pumps are absolutely essential. It might be a good time that you, the head of the EPA, Secretary James and I get in a room and say ‘how do we move forward,’ because we have been dealing with this problem way too long and it’s time to make something happen.”
While Senator Hyde-Smith concedes that a pumping station would not have completely prevented the effects of the flooding, she says the damages would have been drastically reduced.