Testimony
Paul Hollis, President
Delta Council
Mississippi River Commission
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Major General Holland, Colonel Hilliard, and Members of the Commission,
My name is Paul Hollis and I serve as President of Delta Council, an organization that represents business and agriculture in the 19 Delta and part-Delta counties of Northwest Mississippi. Among the highest priorities of our regional organization is flood control, and consequently, therein lies our close relationship and our constant dependence on the leadership of the Mississippi River Commission, the Corps of Engineers, and our two elected Levee Boards.
I also serve as the Sharkey County Commissioner for the Mississippi Board of Levee Commissioners.
The Yazoo Basin features of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Act are fundamental and essential to any success which we might register in agriculture and business throughout the Mississippi Delta, because without the completion of ongoing projects, combined with the routine maintenance of those already-completed features, the remaining infrastructure and private investments of our region will forever be threatened and at risk.
As we submit this testimony today, the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta has continued to experience severe flooding events over the past few years.
As part of those flood events, first and foremost, we want to the thank the Corps for following the rule curve on our four major flood control reservoirs and we urge you to continue following the curve, including the crop releases when applicable. Your management of those releases has been successful in what has a been a very wet cycle and your diligence in following that curve has undoubtedly spared us much more misery.
The Yazoo Headwater Project, which includes the Upper Yazoo Projects, has been ongoing for more than 75 years, and the remaining work toward completion of this project is still a pressing priority for Delta Council. The productivity of our land and the quality of life for our people in the upper reaches of this system have been significantly damaged by frequent flooding of long durations. The frequency of these floods in recent decades has hastened the outmigration of our population in this area, as well as accelerated the rapid deterioration of our public infrastructure that relies so heavily on the role of the Corps of Engineers to complete and maintain these features. These small, rural communities simply cannot sustain the continued pounding by flood events and we cannot possibly overstate the importance of Congress and the Corps of Engineers accelerating the schedule for completing these channel works.
In association with the Upper Yazoo Projects, there are numerous proposed structures throughout the upper reaches of this project area that could be installed at once in order to alleviate some of the issues which impact the convergence of floodwaters from the Coldwater River, White Oak Bayou, Cassidy Bayou, and Tallahatchie River watersheds. We would specifically like to request that the Corps evaluate and potentially move forward with advanced participation of these structures ahead of the channel enlargement features of the Upper Yazoo Projects. We would like to point out that the Corps has not taken a comprehensive look at the plumbing in the Marks area since 1993, (Upper Yazoo area), and we would like to request that the Corps update that study. By all accounts, conditions in that area have changed and we need to have a roadmap for addressing them in the future.
We also encourage the Corps to carefully evaluate the current status of the federally-authorized Tributaries projects in the Yazoo Basin. Such Tributaries as Abiaca Creek, Pelucia Creek, White Oak Bayou, and Opossum Bayou, among others, are in either a state of poor repair and maintenance, or they have simply not been completed. We would urge that the Commission ask the Corps of Engineers to initiate these evaluations and pursue maintenance and construction as needed.
The Delta Headwaters Projects of the Yazoo Basin have been an enormous success; however, the maintenance dollars necessary to keep these projects in a reasonable state of operations has been woefully inadequate. These headwaters projects vastly reduce the sediment loading and improve the water quality aspects of the receiving water bodies, in addition to providing flood damage reduction throughout the watersheds they serve at their point of origination and destination. Many of these projects are 30 years old and have had little or no maintenance work performed on them since completion. Consequently, the February, 2020 flood was exacerbated because of this lack of maintenance.
In addition, funding for the Greenwood District Office to perform operation and maintenance agreements has been drastically reduced in the last decade and consequently, the condition of urban flood protection in Greenwood and Yazoo City, as well as the Yazoo River levee system, is in a poor state of repair. For the first time in 5 decades, Delta Council is receiving calls from concerned landowners and local public officials about the maintenance of these completed Yazoo Basin features and we hope the Corps of Engineers will evaluate these conditions and outline a plan for improvement.
Maintenance work on the Sunflower River was halted almost 30 years ago and we would like to request that priority be placed on re-visiting this maintenance work which affects a 4,000 square-mile watershed. First and foremost, an evaluation of how much fill has occurred in the Sunflower River system would help the Corps and other stakeholders understand the severity of the problem.
And, of course, we would like to take this opportunity today to highlight our biggest concern and highest priority – the completion of the final piece of the Yazoo Basin and Mississippi River and Tributaries plan – the construction of the Yazoo Backwater Pumping Plant.
The South Delta region experienced the worst backwater flood in history in 2019, since all of the other features were completed in 1978. I will not re-iterate the statistics on this historic flood, but this disaster debunks every myth that has been portrayed by the opponents of this project. This flood of almost six months was disastrous for the environment, it was disastrous for wildlife, it was disastrous for homes, it was disastrous for agriculture, it was disastrous for silviculture, and most of all, it was disastrous for the people who live and do business in the South Delta.
In the Yazoo Backwater area in 2019, there were 65,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forest land under water for 6-7 months. It will take up to two years before we will know the full impact of this inundation. The federal government must take the initiative to protect and preserve this one of a kind bottomland hardwood forest.
While not reaching the heights of the 2019 flood, once again this South Delta region experienced one of the largest and longest floods in 2020.
These floods have affected every type of business in the Mississippi Lower Delta from farms, seed and fertilizer distributors, parts houses, local grocery stores, recreational businesses, and local restaurants.
Delta Council greatly appreciates the tremendous response from this Commission, the Corps of Engineers, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works R.D. James, former Governor Phil Bryant, current Governor Tate Reeves, Senator Roger Wicker, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, Congressman Bennie Thompson, and our Levee Boards. We urge that you continue to lift up this avoidable tragedy to Administration officials and people throughout our Nation and work to remove any obstacles to the completion of the only feature that we know will alleviate this suffering in the future – the completion of the Yazoo Backwater Pumping Plant.
We are encouraged by the continued communications and coordination with the Environmental Protection Agency and are hopeful that the timeline the Corps has presented to Congress will be followed, which would result in a Record of Decision in January, 2021.
We also hope that the Corps will work with the other appropriate federal and state agencies to accurately document the economic and ecological costs that these floods have delivered to the six counties in the South Delta and the State of Mississippi.
In conclusion, we ask that you continue to join us in delivering the same message – FINISH THE PLAN, BUILD THE PUMPING PLANT, AND RELIEVE THE PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT OF THE SOUTH DELTA FROM THIS MAN-MADE DISASTER.
I know this area well since it is where I live and earn a living. Agriculture and recreation are our only sources of economic viability. Our entire county tax base depends on agriculture and recreation and our recreation was decimated last year by this flood.
All of these projects are of equal importance and must be completed and maintained so that they function as one in order to have the greatest impact on this severe flooding issue.
I would leave you with one question to ponder today and that is, please ask yourselves if there is any other water system in this Country either controlled or non-controlled with a plug and no way to evacuate the water.
As I conclude the testimony of Delta Council today, I would also like to commend the Corps for their collaborative work with other federal, state, and private entities looking at unique methods to reduce the groundwater decline that is being experienced across the Lower Mississippi River Valley. Specifically, the Corps has played an integral role in the pilot injection project in Leflore County and we appreciate your leadership in this critical area. We urge the Commission to get a briefing from officials at the Corps, the USDA-ARS National Sedimentation Laboratory, and the United States Geological Survey about this critical work, and for the Corps to be more involved in the water supply situation in the Lower Mississippi Valley.
Major General Holland, Colonel Hilliard, and Members of the Commission, thank you so much for allowing Delta Council to provide testimony today.
Respectfully Submitted,
Paul Hollis, President
Delta Council
PO Box 257
Stoneville, MS 38776
Paul Hollis, President
Delta Council
Mississippi River Commission
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Major General Holland, Colonel Hilliard, and Members of the Commission,
My name is Paul Hollis and I serve as President of Delta Council, an organization that represents business and agriculture in the 19 Delta and part-Delta counties of Northwest Mississippi. Among the highest priorities of our regional organization is flood control, and consequently, therein lies our close relationship and our constant dependence on the leadership of the Mississippi River Commission, the Corps of Engineers, and our two elected Levee Boards.
I also serve as the Sharkey County Commissioner for the Mississippi Board of Levee Commissioners.
The Yazoo Basin features of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Act are fundamental and essential to any success which we might register in agriculture and business throughout the Mississippi Delta, because without the completion of ongoing projects, combined with the routine maintenance of those already-completed features, the remaining infrastructure and private investments of our region will forever be threatened and at risk.
As we submit this testimony today, the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta has continued to experience severe flooding events over the past few years.
As part of those flood events, first and foremost, we want to the thank the Corps for following the rule curve on our four major flood control reservoirs and we urge you to continue following the curve, including the crop releases when applicable. Your management of those releases has been successful in what has a been a very wet cycle and your diligence in following that curve has undoubtedly spared us much more misery.
The Yazoo Headwater Project, which includes the Upper Yazoo Projects, has been ongoing for more than 75 years, and the remaining work toward completion of this project is still a pressing priority for Delta Council. The productivity of our land and the quality of life for our people in the upper reaches of this system have been significantly damaged by frequent flooding of long durations. The frequency of these floods in recent decades has hastened the outmigration of our population in this area, as well as accelerated the rapid deterioration of our public infrastructure that relies so heavily on the role of the Corps of Engineers to complete and maintain these features. These small, rural communities simply cannot sustain the continued pounding by flood events and we cannot possibly overstate the importance of Congress and the Corps of Engineers accelerating the schedule for completing these channel works.
In association with the Upper Yazoo Projects, there are numerous proposed structures throughout the upper reaches of this project area that could be installed at once in order to alleviate some of the issues which impact the convergence of floodwaters from the Coldwater River, White Oak Bayou, Cassidy Bayou, and Tallahatchie River watersheds. We would specifically like to request that the Corps evaluate and potentially move forward with advanced participation of these structures ahead of the channel enlargement features of the Upper Yazoo Projects. We would like to point out that the Corps has not taken a comprehensive look at the plumbing in the Marks area since 1993, (Upper Yazoo area), and we would like to request that the Corps update that study. By all accounts, conditions in that area have changed and we need to have a roadmap for addressing them in the future.
We also encourage the Corps to carefully evaluate the current status of the federally-authorized Tributaries projects in the Yazoo Basin. Such Tributaries as Abiaca Creek, Pelucia Creek, White Oak Bayou, and Opossum Bayou, among others, are in either a state of poor repair and maintenance, or they have simply not been completed. We would urge that the Commission ask the Corps of Engineers to initiate these evaluations and pursue maintenance and construction as needed.
The Delta Headwaters Projects of the Yazoo Basin have been an enormous success; however, the maintenance dollars necessary to keep these projects in a reasonable state of operations has been woefully inadequate. These headwaters projects vastly reduce the sediment loading and improve the water quality aspects of the receiving water bodies, in addition to providing flood damage reduction throughout the watersheds they serve at their point of origination and destination. Many of these projects are 30 years old and have had little or no maintenance work performed on them since completion. Consequently, the February, 2020 flood was exacerbated because of this lack of maintenance.
In addition, funding for the Greenwood District Office to perform operation and maintenance agreements has been drastically reduced in the last decade and consequently, the condition of urban flood protection in Greenwood and Yazoo City, as well as the Yazoo River levee system, is in a poor state of repair. For the first time in 5 decades, Delta Council is receiving calls from concerned landowners and local public officials about the maintenance of these completed Yazoo Basin features and we hope the Corps of Engineers will evaluate these conditions and outline a plan for improvement.
Maintenance work on the Sunflower River was halted almost 30 years ago and we would like to request that priority be placed on re-visiting this maintenance work which affects a 4,000 square-mile watershed. First and foremost, an evaluation of how much fill has occurred in the Sunflower River system would help the Corps and other stakeholders understand the severity of the problem.
And, of course, we would like to take this opportunity today to highlight our biggest concern and highest priority – the completion of the final piece of the Yazoo Basin and Mississippi River and Tributaries plan – the construction of the Yazoo Backwater Pumping Plant.
The South Delta region experienced the worst backwater flood in history in 2019, since all of the other features were completed in 1978. I will not re-iterate the statistics on this historic flood, but this disaster debunks every myth that has been portrayed by the opponents of this project. This flood of almost six months was disastrous for the environment, it was disastrous for wildlife, it was disastrous for homes, it was disastrous for agriculture, it was disastrous for silviculture, and most of all, it was disastrous for the people who live and do business in the South Delta.
In the Yazoo Backwater area in 2019, there were 65,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forest land under water for 6-7 months. It will take up to two years before we will know the full impact of this inundation. The federal government must take the initiative to protect and preserve this one of a kind bottomland hardwood forest.
While not reaching the heights of the 2019 flood, once again this South Delta region experienced one of the largest and longest floods in 2020.
These floods have affected every type of business in the Mississippi Lower Delta from farms, seed and fertilizer distributors, parts houses, local grocery stores, recreational businesses, and local restaurants.
Delta Council greatly appreciates the tremendous response from this Commission, the Corps of Engineers, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works R.D. James, former Governor Phil Bryant, current Governor Tate Reeves, Senator Roger Wicker, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, Congressman Bennie Thompson, and our Levee Boards. We urge that you continue to lift up this avoidable tragedy to Administration officials and people throughout our Nation and work to remove any obstacles to the completion of the only feature that we know will alleviate this suffering in the future – the completion of the Yazoo Backwater Pumping Plant.
We are encouraged by the continued communications and coordination with the Environmental Protection Agency and are hopeful that the timeline the Corps has presented to Congress will be followed, which would result in a Record of Decision in January, 2021.
We also hope that the Corps will work with the other appropriate federal and state agencies to accurately document the economic and ecological costs that these floods have delivered to the six counties in the South Delta and the State of Mississippi.
In conclusion, we ask that you continue to join us in delivering the same message – FINISH THE PLAN, BUILD THE PUMPING PLANT, AND RELIEVE THE PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT OF THE SOUTH DELTA FROM THIS MAN-MADE DISASTER.
I know this area well since it is where I live and earn a living. Agriculture and recreation are our only sources of economic viability. Our entire county tax base depends on agriculture and recreation and our recreation was decimated last year by this flood.
All of these projects are of equal importance and must be completed and maintained so that they function as one in order to have the greatest impact on this severe flooding issue.
I would leave you with one question to ponder today and that is, please ask yourselves if there is any other water system in this Country either controlled or non-controlled with a plug and no way to evacuate the water.
As I conclude the testimony of Delta Council today, I would also like to commend the Corps for their collaborative work with other federal, state, and private entities looking at unique methods to reduce the groundwater decline that is being experienced across the Lower Mississippi River Valley. Specifically, the Corps has played an integral role in the pilot injection project in Leflore County and we appreciate your leadership in this critical area. We urge the Commission to get a briefing from officials at the Corps, the USDA-ARS National Sedimentation Laboratory, and the United States Geological Survey about this critical work, and for the Corps to be more involved in the water supply situation in the Lower Mississippi Valley.
Major General Holland, Colonel Hilliard, and Members of the Commission, thank you so much for allowing Delta Council to provide testimony today.
Respectfully Submitted,
Paul Hollis, President
Delta Council
PO Box 257
Stoneville, MS 38776