Newly-appointed Secretary gets first look at pump, hears from citizens

by David Lush
DBJ Contributing Writer

At the request of Mississippi District 1 Congressman Roger Wicker, the newly appointed Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, John Paul Woodley Jr., flew to the Yazoo Backwater Project pump site at the Steele Bayou drainage structure on an MH-60 Blackhawk helicopter to see firsthand the impacted area under discussion on Friday, October 24.

Residents and landowners in the south Delta area have been waiting since 1941 for the federal government to construct a previously promised pumping station, now expected to cost around $191 million. The pumping station (a part of Mississippi River and Tributaries Project) will pump millions of gallons of rain and floodwaters, over the levee during high stages on the Mississippi River. Over 4,000 square miles of Mississippi Delta relies on the Steele Bayou structure as the outlet for flood waters.

“This is part of a series of trips I am making to see a number of projects underway,” said Woodley who is now the civilian head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “I am very new to this position having been in it for about two months. I have made it a point to see what’s in progress here in Mississippi. Thanks to my good friend Roger Wicker, I’m seeing what’s going on in Mississippi,” Woodley said of the visit.

“This is a project that has generated a lot of controversy and I wanted to see first-hand the impacted area and talk to people. The decision-making process on this project is still ongoing but things are in the works. Nothing is finalized yet. I want to strike the best balance between the environmental concerns and the concerns of the people who are most directly affected by what is happening in the south Delta area of this state,” Woodley said.

Woodley had an opportunity to meet a few of those affected landowners Friday at the Catledge Farm shop building at Fitler. One of those,Ruby Johnson, chair of the South Delta Flood Control Committee, requested time with Wicker and Woodley during the visit so they could see and hear from people who get flooded out of their homes, lose their animals and otherwise are directly impacted by the lack of action on the pumping station.

“We have been told that we can move out or put our homes on stilts,” Johnson said. “We don’t want to do that. We want you to give us something to help keep the water off of us. We do not intend to give up our homes and we are willing to march on Washington, D.C. Our families—they left us with a little piece of dirt. Why should we give that up? We can’t afford to start over and we shouldn’t have to do it.”

“We went through some hard times,” added Fitler resident Anderson Jones Sr. “The flood got so bad in 1973 - I don’t want to go through this no more. We don’t want to lose our homes. Sixty-plus years is too long to get something done.”

“We intend to go back to Washington to tell the human side of this,” said Wicker, in response. “We hope that the 60 years comes to an end very soon. The point of this whole trip is that we’ve got to work together. The Corps of Engineers is very vital.”

Since Woodley and Wicker have been friends for over 30 years, Wicker said he expects his friend to use caution and “to look at the facts rather than the hyperbole.”

“This is exactly what I came here to see,” Woodley said. “The people I’ve heard from prior to the visit are not the people affected by the problem or by the solution. This has been a very informative trip. We want to do what’s right to help people in their daily lives. It’s not for me to talk on this trip, it’s for me to listen.”

Jim Wanamaker, chief engineer for the Mississippi Levee Board headquartered in Greenville, also presented Woodley and Wicker with a detailed, visual overview of the status of the project. “It’s very important for Secretary Woodley and Congressman Wicker to see what’s under discussion and why this project is so important to the south Delta,” said Wanamaker.

Chip Morgan, executive director with Delta Council at Stoneville, said that Delta Council, which has been very active in this discussion, was “very appreciative” that Wicker and Woodley “came to the Mississippi Delta.”

Woodley said he didn’t expect a decision on the project until sometime next year at the earliest but that he “would now review the information and material” and “see about a consensus as quickly as possible.”

This article originally appeared in the Delta Democrat Times and was written by David Lush. It is reprinted here by permission in a modified and edited form. DBJ