Yazoo Backwater Pumps Offers Promise to Mississippi Rice Growers and the Environment
By Kirk Satterfield
USA Rice
Flood protection in the Lower Mississippi Valley provides many benefits, including the opportunity for hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi Delta region to be farmed without risks of affect by the volatile Mississippi River. Areas with flood protection in the Lower Mississippi Valley continue to provide some of the richest and most diverse wildlife habitat in the country, and with flood protection that land can be managed to provide net benefits for both agriculture and the environment.
A vast majority of the major flood control components throughout the Lower Mississippi Valley have been completed. However, one major component of the Yazoo Backwater Area in Mississippi remains unfinished: a pumping station.