Q&A: Why preventing flooding in Mississippi’s Yazoo Backwater is easier said than done

The Yazoo Backwater space of the South Mississippi Delta has suffered from continual flooding for generations.

Lack of residence, relocation and rebuilding have turn into part of life for residents within the space, however developing with an answer has been controversial. Earlier this yr, the Environmental Safety Company and the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers introduced they’d work collectively on a pumping system that would stop flooding, however would additionally devastate the encircling atmosphere.

The Vicksburg Publish has been protecting the scenario and the way it might affect residents. Anna Guizerix, the paper’s managing editor, spoke with the Gulf States Newsroom’s Danny McArthur to debate how the South Delta obtained thus far and what’s at stake.

The next dialog has been edited and condensed for readability.

Danny McArthur: This has been a difficulty that is been occurring for generations. Why is flooding such a persistent drawback within the space?

Anna Guizerix: Traditionally, it has been an issue because the Eighteen Nineties, if not earlier than. The most recent account I’ve discovered is a girl whose great-great-grandparents had their wedding ceremony announcement within the newspaper and it mentioned that the company arrived by skiffs as a result of the water was too excessive for them to stroll there. The historical past of the world is sort of pockmarked by just a few main floods. And so ‘73 rolls round and Backwater floods, the Mississippi River floods and there is no approach for that water to flee. You might have the levee and you’ve got water on both facet. The Corps of Engineers is available in they usually say, ‘OK, we will design this pumping system.’ It is a three-part system. You might have the metal bio gate that opens to let Mississippi River water in when the river is simply too excessive or let backwater out when it is too excessive. You might have the levee system and you then even have the backwater pumping station. That final piece of the puzzle — the pumping station — was not accomplished. So as a result of there is no pumping station, it creates a bath impact. 

In the case of options to the issue, there’s been a variety of forwards and backwards for fairly a while.

Sure. We sort of have this demonization of anti-pump folks. And we even have demonization of those massive producing money crop farmers. And on the identical time, we even have the environmental piece, as a result of these floods do devastate the natural world within the area. So for the previous few years, the Yazoo Backwater pumps concern and the Yazoo Backwater flooding concern has been handled like a political soccer to be punted round as an alternative of a matter of life and demise for each human, animal, flowers within the area.

Are you able to discuss what’s at stake for these communities if there is no answer? 

I’ve, by way of the course of my reporting, sort of crisscrossed the world, which is so much wider than it seems to be like on a map. However I’ve seen what these cities appear to be after floods. An excellent instance is the Holly Bluff Neighborhood. One story supply I spoke to, Mr. Thomas Jones, he mentioned, “You realize, we used to have commerce and a downtown. It wasn’t very massive, however it was there.” And I needed to drive by way of all of what stays of that city to get to his home. It was stunning to me to see simply bricks tumbling out of buildings. 

Again in January, there was some motion on this with the Military and the Environmental Safety Company.

That was in February. However now Military and EPA are working collectively. After which … February 15, they invited all people locally to return out to the Vicksburg District constructing right here in Vicksburg they usually had a collection of public data classes. And it was a dialog between these officers from Washington D.C. with the EPA, the Military Civil Works and the individuals who, once more, have been residing in and amongst these floodwaters their entire lives. The residents had been hopeful — they walked away hopeful — which is one thing I had not seen in another assembly. It actually felt optimistic.

As somebody who’s been reporting on this for some time, why ought to folks throughout the area be listening to this?

Properly, the folks within the Yazoo Backwater Space and within the South Delta are similar to you and me. They arrive from all walks of life, all backgrounds. They’re happy with the place they’re from and what they do is necessary to our area. They’re pushed out of their properties. They’ve misplaced the whole lot not as soon as, however twice, and thrice over in some instances. And all they need to do is what you and I take with no consideration each evening, which is go residence and benefit from the locations that they’ve labored so onerous to domesticate and to construct a life.

Anna Guizerix is the managing editor of The Vicksburg Publish. She can also be the host of the newspaper’s podcast, “Voices of the Floods.” 

This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration amongst Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama and WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.