The Environmental Protection Agency has blocked a Corps of Engineers flood-control project in the Mississippi Delta because it has determined that the plan would have harmed wetlands and wildlife in the area. EPA's final decision, announced Sept. 2, on the $220-million Yazoo Backwater Project is a victory for environmental groups. But the project's local sponsor, the Mississippi Levee Board, says it's "appalled" by the ruling.
The project, first authorized in 1941, includes a pumping station with a capacity of 14,000 cubic feet per second as well as reforesting more than 55,000 acres of agricultural land. In a final ruling signed Aug. 31, Benjamin H. Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for water, said that plans to dispose of fill material from the project in nearby wetlands "would have an unacceptable adverse effect on fishery areas and wildlife." EPA took its action under its Clean Water Act authority to prohibit or limit use of "waters of the United States" for disposing fill or dredged material when it finds harmful effects on water or wildlife.