MONTICELLO — Even with an adjusted proposal to tackle flood risk in Jackson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers still faces a steady flow of opposition downstream along the Pearl River.
“Let me assure you that Louisiana and Mississippi will sue you,” Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, told a panel of Corps officials Thursday night. “We will be in court fighting over you destroying our recreation, our way of life, our wildlife, our fishing and hunting and recreation. We will be in court.”
Last month, the Corps released a up-to-date draft environmental impact statement as part of the process for selecting a plan to create flood control in Jackson. The report suggested that a plan that would cost anywhere from $487 million to $655 million may be the most justifiable under the agency’s cost-benefit analysis.
The agency is receiving public feedback on the report until Aug. 6 after recently extending the deadline. The Corps will then utilize feedback from the public, as well as other government agencies, to craft a final EIS. The agency’s timeline projects a final decision in December from Michael Connor, the assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works .
Over the last decade or so that Rankin and Hinds County officials have pushed a flood control plan known as “One Lake,” officials and residents downstream have shouted back. They argue that the plan, which would relocate a dam and widen the Pearl River near Jackson, would disrupt the river’s downstream flow and, thus, also the wildlife and industries that rely on it.
In its June report, the Corps suggested that One Lake may have too enormous of a price tag to justify. However, the report also says that “Alternative D,” which includes similar components as One Lake, may be the most justifiable based on the agency’s cost-benefit analysis.
Alternative D would create a smaller lake (about two-thirds the size) than what the One Lake plan would, and decrease mitigation costs by avoiding potential hazardous waste sites along the river. Alternative D also includes the option of elevating homes and voluntary buyouts for some of those in the floodplain.
Regardless of the differences, though, those in Monticello on Thursday still saw the fundamentals of what they’ve spent years protesting: a lake that, to some degree, is being advertised as recreation for those in the Jackson metro area.
Rep. Becky Currie talking to the Corps panel at a meeting in Monticello on July 11, 2024.
“What’s this going to do to my paper mill?” Scotty McCloud asked the panel. McCloud has spent the last 44 years working at the local Georgia Pacific paper mill, one of the largest employers in the area. He argued that, if the mill doesn’t get the right quantity of water at the right temperature, not only would the mill suffer but so would Lawrence County as a whole.
Troy Constance, an environmental expert for the Corps, said that the agency’s modeling of the remaining flood control proposals shows minimal impact to the Pearl River’s flow once it reaches Monticello.
“We’re not seeing huge changes very far from (where the proposed weir, or dam, would go),” Constance said, adding later that the models the Corps used were some of the best he’d work with in his 39 years on the job.
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