[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 130 (Wednesday, July 31, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5254-S5256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. HYDE-SMITH (for herself and Mr. Wicker):
  S. 2410. A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to 
modify the requirements for permits for dredged or fill material, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. Mr. President, in my maiden floor speech on May 9, I 
spoke on behalf of thousands of Mississippians suffering from 
consecutive months of catastrophic flooding in the South Mississippi 
Delta.
  Today I rise again to speak on behalf of thousands of Mississippians 
who are still suffering from catastrophic flooding, which started in 
January and continues to disrupt the lives of residents in the 
Mississippi Delta and my State overall.
  Floodwaters must recede before damages can be fully assessed, but we 
already know that more than 600 households have suffered severe damage, 
nearly 400 families have been displaced since February, and 
agricultural losses will likely exceed $800 million. Much of the 
necessary infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and drainage 
culverts are beyond repair.
  In June, LaTamela Taylor--13 weeks pregnant--and Darron Wilson died 
when their car lost control and sank into the floodwaters. Something 
must be done.

[[Page S5255]]

  My colleagues might ask: How could an area more than 11 times the 
size of Washington, DC, remain underwater for nearly 7 months? How 
could floodwaters swamp more than half a million acres of homes, 
businesses, highways, forests, and farmlands spanning six Mississippi 
counties for so long?
  The answer is quite simple. Similar to New Orleans, a complex system 
of levees and floodgates constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers protected the roughly 1,446-square-mile Yazoo Backwater area 
in West Central Mississippi. This levee system protects the areas when 
the Mississippi River is high and the floodgates are closed. However, 
these same protections become the problem when the river is high, 
floodgates are closed, and excess rainfall occurs. The interior creeks 
and rivers have no way to drain, and the result is a bathtub-like 
effect.
  Unlike New Orleans and numerous Federal flood control projects up and 
down the Mississippi River, there is no mechanism to remove the trapped 
water from the Yazoo Backwater area. Aside from evaporation, pumping is 
the only viable option for removing vast amounts of water that have no 
place to go.
  This year, the Mississippi River remained above flood stage longer 
than anytime in recorded history. The floodgates to prevent the 
Mississippi River from backing up into the Yazoo Backwater area were 
closed in January. Above-average rainfall occurred in the months 
thereafter, and here we are today with a disaster on our hands.
  For nearly 7 months, more than a half million acres of land--866-
square-mile area--has been underwater. Little attention outside of 
Mississippi was paid to the lives lost, the destroyed homes, or the 
displaced families.
  Roughly, 225,000 acres of agricultural crops have been destroyed or 
will go unplanted this year. Hundreds of thousands of acres of 
Timberland ruined. Whitetail deer, black bear, turkey, and other 
wildlife are starving to death and spreading the disease, as you can 
see from these pictures. Wetlands have become lakes. Stagnant, 
contaminated water continues to threaten human and environmental 
health. The list goes on.
  Paul Hartfield, an endangered species biologist with the U.S. Fish 
and Wildlife Service, said: ``This is biblical proportion. Nothing like 
this has ever been seen.''
  While he is correct in that the current situation in the South 
Mississippi Delta is a complete disaster--the worst backwater flood 
since 1973--devastating flooding in the area has become almost an 
annual occurrence.
  This year marks the 10th time the Yazoo Backwater area has flooded 
since 2008, each time causing hundreds of millions of dollars in 
damages. The area residents cannot sustain this, and they certainly do 
not deserve this.
  According to U.S. census data, roughly 35 percent of the residents of 
the six-county area live in poverty. The median household income is 
$31,187 per year below the national average. This perpetual flooding 
plagues agriculture production, which has damaged the primary economic 
mainstay in this region and increased unemployment. I fear what the 
2020 census will reveal.
  In a 1982 environmental impact statement, the U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers stated the following:

       Flooding in the Yazoo Area is historic and will continue as 
     long as pumps are not constructed to complete the flood 
     control system for the area. The flooding will continue to 
     damage crops, homes, roads, and other improvements in the 
     area project.

  In a 2007 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, the Corps 
stated the following:

       The no-action alternative would not eliminate any of the 
     flood damages the area has historically experienced. Existing 
     Yazoo Backwater flood duration and frequency would continue 
     to adversely affect residential and nonresidential 
     structures. Flooding would also have adverse impacts on the 
     standard of living for residents, interrupting daily 
     practices and travel to work, school, and church.

  The Corps of Engineers was accurate in its predictions. 
Mississippians are living these predictions out in real life, and they 
have for years. It is time for the people of Mississippi to receive the 
level of flood protection promised to them by the Federal Government in 
1941. It is time for the Corps of Engineers to complete the last 
remaining unconstructed feature of a 77-year flood control effort--the 
Yazoo Backwater pumps.
  The people of Mississippi are beyond ready to see this crisis 
resolved. They are, frankly, extremely frustrated with the Federal 
Government. More than 17,000 people have signed a petition to remove an 
Environmental Protection Agency 2008 regulatory veto preventing 
construction of the pumps. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, the 
Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the 
Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, and many other 
State leaders and organizations have been overwhelmingly in their 
support and advocacy for the pumps.
  I am grateful for this administration's responsiveness to 
Mississippi's perpetual flood problems and needs, and I will continue 
to work with the administration, relevant Federal Government agencies 
and departments to see this through.
  As I continue working to provide greater predictability and 
regulatory certainty for Mississippians and the American public, I am 
committed in my capacity as a U.S. Senator to proposing commonsense 
reforms to the laws governing the regulation of our Nation's waters and 
permitting process.
  For this reason, I, along with the senior Senator from Mississippi, 
have introduced the Flood Reduction, Wildlife Habitat, and Water 
Quality Improvement Act of 2019. This legislation seeks to make 
commonsense reforms to section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
  Our bill mirrors the directives outlined in Executive Order No. 13807 
issued by President Donald Trump on August 24, 2017, and would 
establish greater discipline and accountability in the environmental 
review and permitting process for infrastructure projects.
  More specifically, it would prohibit EPA from vetoing a Corps of 
Engineers flood control project specifically authorized by Congress. 
This is a basic constitutional principle of separation of powers. 
Further, upon enactment, it would immediately nullify any prior veto 
determinations made by EPA if said actions had resulted in severe 
flooding and damage to life and property.
  In closing, the arguments I have heard in opposition to this project 
are not valid. Pumps will save lives, property, local infrastructure, 
wildlife, and the environment. As we are here going about our daily 
lives, enjoying the comfort of the home we will return to today after 
work, these Mississippians are just trying to get through the next 30 
minutes to keep their sanity and emotions intact. The real-life 
experiences Mississippians have endured over time tell the true story.
  It is time for the Federal Government to make good on its promises. 
It is time to construct the pumps.
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I congratulate the junior Senator from 
Mississippi, Mrs. Hyde-Smith. I thank her for her leadership. She took 
the lead on this legislation, and I am delighted and honored to join 
her in this regard.
  If Americans could take a moment, a few hours, to come to the South 
Delta of Mississippi and see for themselves what Senator Hyde-Smith is 
talking about, they would understand the gravity of this situation.
  She mentioned 7 months. If you are there today, you see dead wildlife 
floating on the floodwaters. You see coffins that had been buried that 
are floating on the surface of the floodwater in this area. There is no 
prospect of an income this year on these small farms and no prospect of 
a crop this year from some of the most fertile land the United States 
has been blessed with.

  The tragedy of this is that it is entirely preventable. The 
prevention involves a promise that was made, as the Senator from 
Mississippi said, back in 1941 when this country and this Congress 
collectively adopted the Mississippi River and Tributaries System. That 
system included, up and down the river, a series of levees and flood-
control structures. It also included a series of pumps. We are the only 
State that still, after this entire time, doesn't have our pump that 
has been promised to us.
  There have been environmental challenges along the way--
unsubstantiated, I might add. As a matter of fact, the environment is 
harmed, wildlife is harmed when a flood of this magnitude comes into 
the area, as graphically

[[Page S5256]]

demonstrated by some of the photographs the Senator has offered.
  She mentioned the bathtub effect. Let me make sure my colleagues 
understand this. When the Mississippi floods, the Yazoo River backs up 
into the delta. As a result, we put down a floodgate, and that is 
designed to keep the flooded Yazoo River from backing up into this 
fertile farmland.
  We had made a promise--or at least we thought we had a promise--to 
people with property 87 feet above sea level that when the floodwater 
behind the floodgate reaches 87, we would start pumping and pump that 
water back into the Mississippi River, where it has a minimal effect. 
This gives certainty. We know there is going to be a flood. People with 
property 87 feet above sea level and below know they are going to be 
flooded. But the promise of the pump is that if you have land that is 
above 87 feet, you can build a house there, you can put your business 
there, you can plant your crop there, and you can be certain that you 
will get the same protection from flooding as everybody else up and 
down the Mississippi River Tributary System gets. That is the promise 
that everybody else gets but has been foreclosed to us.
  So I congratulate the Senator for thinking of this solution. That is 
a piece of legislation that would correct this problem. Clearly, it 
would also help if we simply got the Corps and the EPA to agree that 
the decision 10 years or so ago was made incorrectly and let us have 
what the rest of the system has; that is, a flood-control promise that 
gives us certainty that we can conduct our business, have a home, and 
conduct our lives as it was promised. That is all we are asking for. 
For 7 months this year and for weeks and months in previous years, we 
have been denied that.
  I want to congratulate the Senator and associate myself with the 
remarks of the junior Senator from Mississippi and thank her for her 
leadership in thinking of this particular solution, which would give us 
a remedy, but also say that there are other ways this could be solved. 
We deserve the certainty that everyone else up and down the Mississippi 
system now has, and we deserve to have that promise made to us back in 
the 1940s fulfilled even at this late date.

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