Finish the Pumps gets promise of support from EPA Environmental Justice Council

Members of the Finish the Pumps group traveled to Jacksonville, Fla., to appear before the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council last week.

The NEJAC is a 25-member council that normally meets twice a year to hear complaints from indigenous and minority groups along with those who are underrepresented before the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is not bound to act on the council’s recommendations; however, they have significant influence on agency decisions.

Finish the Pumps is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization formed last year to educate and lobby for completion of the Yazoo Backwater Project. The project was approved by Congress in the 1940s and it consists of a series of levees, channels and drainage structures designed to protect the South Delta from flooding. Most of the project was completed by the late ’70s; however, the final piece of the project, pumps to evacuate water from the Delta even when the rivers were high, were not. In 2008, the EPA vetoed the completion of the pumps.

The result is that the South Delta has experienced unprecedented levels of flooding. Last year, more than 550,000 acres were underwater for months, including 225,000 acres of farmland.

Most speakers at last week’s meeting were given five to seven minutes, and mainly discussed issues related to pesticides and farming. When Holly Bluff-based farmer Clay Adcock testified, he was at the podium for over an hour, fielding questions from council members unaware of the situation with the incomplete Yazoo Backwater Project and the decimation of the South Delta due to flooding.

Finish the Pumps came well prepared with detailed documentation along with letters of support from local, state and federal officials. Adcock was accompanied by his wife Paige, fellow Holly Bluff farmer Larry “Joe” Walls and Onward based farmer Victoria Darden.

Because of the advocacy efforts of Finish the Pumps, council members indicated they would draft a recommendation of support to the EPA to complete the pumps, Adcock said. The group also had the opportunity to again meet with EPA Southeast Region Administrator Mary Walker.

Adcock is optimistic the trip will have an impact on the issue.

“We learned about this last minute and decided it was an opportunity to plead our case to a different group who carries a big stick with the EPA,” he said. “We feel like the trip was worthwhile.”