Activism Across America

I went to Yazoo in the 1990s, and found it a charming small town. As nice as the town was, however, the Yazoo River had much more of an impact on me. I saw it in a time of high water, mind you, but the vision of its thick, muddy water surging through that small town will never leave me. The Yazoo is quite a river.

It’s easy for those of us who are not from Mississippi to make fun of the name of Yazoo. It’s an odd name - no denying it. Let’s get past the name, now. Yazoo is in trouble.

The Army Corps of Engineers has come up with a scheme to build the world’s largest water pumping station on the Yazoo River, even larger than the mammoth pumps used in Holland to keep the ocean at bay. Why do they want to put such a huge pump there, right in the middle of Mississippi?

They want to drain over 200,000 acres of prime wetlands, including federally protected wetlands in the Delta National Forest, that draw in a huge range of migratory birds. The presence of those birds adds significantly to the local economy. Drain those wetlands, and the birds are gone.

There’s good news and bad news on this matter. The staff of the Environmental Protection Agency has reviewed the matter and recommended that the Yazoo Backwater Pumping Plant project be vetoed. That’s good news.

The bad news is that, in the past, the staff of the EPA has not always had final say. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, a political appointee of the Republican Bush Administration, has sometimes chosen to ignore the advice his own staff of scientists give him.

Take action: Send a letter to Stephen Johnson urging him to veto the Yazoo Pumps.