EPA overturns approval of Mississippi Yazoo Pumps Project

By LEAH WILLINGHAM
Associated Press/Report for America

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has overturned the approval of a massive flood-control project in the south Mississippi Delta that officials said was erroneously greenlit in the final days of the Trump administration. EPA officials said the past administration’s November 2020 decision to approve the Yazoo Pumps Project was in violation of the Clean Water Act. The decision was celebrated by conservation groups — American Rivers, National Audubon Society, Sierra Club and Healthy Gulf. U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith said the EPA’s action was “an abuse of discretion.” She said with its decision, the federal government was “refusing to do the right thing by it’s people.”