May 3rd 2020 | Posted in Water Projects by Government Contracting Pipeline

Mississippi – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is beginning preparations on an environmental impact statement for a pump project in the Yazoo Backwater Area.
District engineers and technical experts determined the need for an updated study based on recent floods and new data on the environment in the backwater area.

Yazoo Backwater Area Yazoo Backwater Study Area

Yazoo Backwater Study Area

New data indicates that the environmental impacts to wetlands and other natural and aquatic resources caused by a pumping plant would be substantially less than originally calculated in the 2007 Reformulation Study and Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.

In nine of the last 10 years, the Yazoo Backwater Area has experienced significant flooding. In 2019, flooding in the area caused two attributed deaths, hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, the flooding of more than 600 homes, the displacement of hundreds of residents, and negative impacts on wildlife.

The majority of water control infrastructure in the area was built in the 1940s, 1960s, and 1970s. The pump project is the only feature that remains unconstructed, and the Yazoo Backwater Area is the only major backwater area in the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project that does not have a pumping plant.

Construction costs are estimated at $400 million.