A PETITION FOR FLOOD RELIEF
Thank you for visiting our petition explainer, where you can find supplemental information about why our petition says what it says. If you are ready to sign the petition, please go to the following link:
Who are we? This petition was created by the 3 Communities 1 Common Agenda Collective, a group of residents and trusted partners representing the Northeast Jackson neighborhoods of Canton Club, Parkway, and McLeod. Many of our teammates and neighbors were flooded or forced to evacuate in 2020 and 2022. We understand that flooding harms us and many more people throughout the Jackson metro.
This petition is for all of us.
Petition language
Explanation
This webpage shows the petition language in white text on a black background and explanatory text in black text on a light gray background.
A PETITION FOR FLOOD RELIEF to the decision-makers in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Rankin-Hinds Flood and Drainage Control District:
The petition targets the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, headed by Michael Connor, a President Biden appointee.
It also targets the board of the Rankin-Hinds District, commonly known as the levee board. The board includes Mayor Antar Lumumba, Supervisor Robert Graham, along with the mayors of Flowood, Pearl, and Richland, and a Rankin County Supervisor.
These two agencies are the decision-makers in the Pearl River Federal Flood Risk Management Project.
YOU HAVE A DECISION TO MAKE. The project you are administering, the Pearl River Flood Risk Management Project, is a massive investment authorized by Congress to reduce flood damages in the Jackson Metropolitan Area. You could use it to improve the lives of thousands of residents and alleviate the suffering caused by events like the floods of early 2020, or you could pursue a lake.
Congress authorized upwards of $370 million for a flood control project on the Pearl River (CR, section 6). The law states that this project is for flood damage reduction (CR, section 1).
We believe the need for flood damage reduction or flood relief is obvious. Dozens of Northeast Jackson residents were flooded out of their homes, and hundreds were forced to evacuate in February 2020 when the Pearl River reached its third-highest crest (NWS). In the weeks leading to this record event, West Jackson flash flooding, harmed businesses, neighborhoods, and at least two public schools. (CL West, WJTV). Some residents, like those on Choctaw Road, have lost tens of thousands of dollars in property due to flash flooding (CL Choctaw). Other pockets of catastrophic flooding include the Forrest Lake neighborhood (CL Forrest) and the Stokes-Robertson area in South Jackson. These are the types of harms that are supposed to be addressed by the Pearl River Federal Flood Risk Management Project.
On June 7, 2024, the Corps published a draft study, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, or DEIS, that introduced four Alternative solutions for flood relief in the Jackson metropolitan. They are called
-
Alternative A1
-
Alternative A1 with a Canton Club Levee
-
Alternative D
-
Alternative E
YOU COULD PURSUE ANOTHER LAKE PROPOSAL FOR RECREATION AND REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT THAT YOU HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED PROVIDES NO FLOOD RELIEF.
Alternative D proposes excavating the Pearl River, using the dug material to fill in wetlands, and creating a new lake. According to page viii of the DEIS, the new lake “does not provide any flood control benefits." Nonetheless, the Corps and the levee board have signaled this is their preferred alternative (MT).
Why are these agencies in favor of a lake without food relief benefits? According to the levee board, the filled-in wetlands would create opportunities for waterside "recreation... public use, residential, commercial, natural and open space" (DEIS, Page 267).
[Pursuing another lake proposal] will require more studies to understand the impacts of the new lake, more Congressional lobbying to fund and justify the new lake, and continued antagonism of the downstream municipalities, counties, and parishes, whose lands and livelihoods are threatened by further deterioration of the Pearl River.
What happens if the Corps and the levee board pursue another lake project?
Pursuing another lake plan will require more studies to address questions, such as...
-
What damages will the new lake incur on the J.H. Fewell water plant, Jackson's secondary water supply source? (DEIS, Page 179).
-
Where will the material (dirt, soil, etc.) for the new waterfront properties be sourced from? (DEIS, Page 115).
-
What are the costs of cleaning hazardous toxic and radioactive waste sites that would be disturbed by the excavation and lake? "[A]dditional investigation and site visited are recommended" (DEIS, Page 73).
-
What are the costs of mitigating harm to wildlife? (CR, Section 11(b))
Pursuing another lake plan will require lobbying Congress to authorize and fund the lake. According to a report by Colonel Christopher Klein, the former commander of the Corps at Vicksburg, Alternative D would cost between $506 million and $681 million, but the project's limit is $440 million. Implementation would thus require additional Congressional authority (CR Section 6 and 6c). To be clear, this high cost is due partially to the cost of the new lake, which is estimated to be between $90 million and $150 million.
WE PETITION THAT YOU PROPOSE A NEW PLAN PROTECTING HOMES, BUSINESSES, AND CRITICAL FACILITIES FROM NORTHEAST JACKSON TO BYRAM AND WEST JACKSON TO RICHLAND.
None of the current plans achieve this coverage.
Jackson’s wastewater treatment plant flooded catastrophically in 1979, overflowing raw sewage into the river and backing it into neighborhoods. A similar flood would lead to damages of $3.5 Million, more than 8% of the Corps's estimated flood damages for the metro (DEIS page 134). All plans should reduce the chances of flooding at the wastewater treatment plant, but Alternatives A1 and A1 with Canton Club Levee do not.
DEIS page 89 lists schools as "critical infrastructure," therefore, so proposed plans should address the repeated and well-documented flooding at Jim Hill High and Isable Elementary Schools. None of the current plans do. In fact, no current plan addresses flooding in West Jackson.
Although the current plans call for structure elevations and floodproofing in South Jackson, Byram, and Richland, Alternatives D & E increase flood risks to potentially more than 200 structures in these areas.
WE PETITION THAT PROPOSED PLANS LEVERAGE PROJECT FUNDS FULLY BUT STAY WITHIN THE PROJECT’S COST LIMITS.
None of the current plans achieve this just and responsible use of funds.
The cost of implementing Alternative D or E is far above the authorized limit of $440 million set by Congress (CR, sect. 6).
Alternatives A1 and A1 with Canton Club levee are far below the funds authorized by Congress, therefore leaving hundreds of millions of dollars on the table that could be used to create an effective flood relief plan. On the other hand,
WE PETITION YOU TO COOPERATE WITH OTHER STATE AND FEDERAL AGENCIES ENGAGED IN FLOOD DAMAGE REDUCTION FOR THE JACKSON AREA TO COMPLEMENT THE PROJECT’S PURPOSE.
“Cooperative efforts, which effectively combine Federal investments, can achieve greater economic, social, and environmental benefits than individual agencies acting alone.” That’s not just our opinion, that’s the Corps’s stance in its Engineering Regulation (ER) 1105-2-100 (pg. 2-14).
Agencies such as the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission, which recently initiated multiple tributary flood relief projects in the Jackson metropolitan area, can and should cooperate with the Corps and the levee board through “information and data base sharing, cooperative planning efforts, as well as collaborative and shared construction.”
The benefits of this collaboration could yield higher flood damage reduction and national economic development benefits than any plan currently considered. For example, if the four agencies jointly pursued the expanded version of Alternative A1 described on DEIS page 100 and Table 3-7, which provided flood relief to over 600 structures, including some 450 in West Jackson, they would provide the metropolitan area with a level of flood damage reduction on par with that provided by Alternatives D & E for a fraction of the cost.
Initiating a more collaborative planning process may be as simple as meeting in a shared conference room and chatting over the water cooler. Waggoner Engineering, the engineering and architecture firm conducting the tributary studies, shares an address with MSEG/AJA, the levee board’s engineering and architecture firm.
Sources
-
B&B: "Chip Pickering - innovation equals opportunities." Published June 6, 2020. Available online.
-
C-L Choctaw: "Flash flooding in Jackson." Clarion-Ledger. Published January 14, 2020. Available online.
-
C-L West: "Flash flooding in Jackson." Clarion-Ledger. Published January 14, 2020. Available online.
-
CR: Commander’s Report (CR), Pearl River Basin, Mississippi, Federal Flood Risk Management Project. USACE. Published June 11, 2024. Available online.
-
DEIS: Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Pearl River Basin, Mississippi Federal Flood Risk Management Project. USACE. Published June 7, 2024. Available online.
-
ER 1105-2-100: Engineering Regulation 1105-2-100. Published April 22, 2000. Available online.
-
JH: "Flooding near Jim Hill High School." WJTV. Published January 14, 2020. Available online.
-
MT: "Corps indicates support for altered version of ‘One Lake’." Mississippi Today. Published June 11, 2024. Available online.
-
NWS: Pearl River Flood of 2020. National Weather Service (NWS). Published March 20, 2020. Available online.