Conservation Groups Blast the Biden Administration’s Decision to Ditch Clean Water Act Veto
Roseate Spoonbill. Photo: Susan Perry/Audubon Photography Awards
JACKSON, Miss. (January 17, 2025) – Today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) released its official Record of Decision to build the Yazoo Pumps, a massive agricultural drainage project in Mississippi’s South Delta. The announcement includes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) last-minute assertion that the agency’s longstanding Clean Water Act veto, which stopped the project in 2008 and 2021, does not apply to the Corps proposal. (Find background details below; View Corps and EPA announcements.)
Joint Statement by Aforementioned Conservation Groups:
“EPA’s stunning decision to green light the world’s largest hydraulic pumping plant rejects science, defies the law, and ignores the voices of dozens of local community members, more than 175 conservation and social justice organizations, and over 42,000 members of the public who expressed overwhelming opposition.
The Corps’ plan will damage 90,000 acres of globally important wetlands, an area twice as large as Washington, D.C. These wetlands are used by 29 million migrating birds each year and support hundreds of species of fish and wildlife.
This action is a massive stain on the Biden Administration’s environmental legacy and undermines EPA’s own authority to protect our nation’s most important waters. Constructing the devastating project will steer vital resources away from providing the types of effective 21st century flood solutions repeatedly requested by local community members.”
Background:
An antiquated project authorized by Congress in 1941, the Corps restarted their planning process to build the Yazoo Pumps in 2024, which culminated with the close of the Final Environmental Impact Statement’s public comment period on December 30, 2024. The Corps has proposed constructing the world’s largest hydraulic pumping plant that would drain thousands of acres of hemispherically important wetlands to boost agribusiness. The Corps’ plan will operate these massive pumps around crop seasons, which reinforces its 2007 admission that 80 percent of the project benefits would be for agriculture.
EPA’s letter asserts the agency has determined that the Corps’ latest Pumps proposal is not subject to the Clean Water Act veto that the agency issued in 2008 and reasserted in 2021. The George W. Bush’s EPA used its authority to stop the destructive Yazoo Pumps, citing the project would cause “unacceptable damage” to “some of the richest wetland and aquatic resources in the nation”–only one of 14 vetoes EPA has ever issued in the 52-year history of the Clean Water Act.
EPA’s veto squarely applies to the Corps’ proposal, which recommends a 78 percent larger pumping station than the project EPA vetoed in 2008. The plan further violates EPA’s veto on its face by damaging 90,000 acres of nationally important wetlands—more than three times the amount prohibited by the veto.
Instead of the costly, ineffective Yazoo Pumps, EPA and the Corps should prioritize proven nature-based and non-structural flood solutions as outlined by the aforementioned Conservation Organizations’ Resilience Alternative—solutions that are supported by EPA’s own veto and that have been requested by many local community leaders, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and many others.
Media Contact: Jill Mastrototaro, jill.mastrototaro@audubon.org
About Audubon:
The National Audubon Society is a leading nonprofit conservation organization with 120 years of science-based, community-driven impact, dedicated to protecting birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow. Birds are powerful indicators of our planet’s health, acting as sentinels that warn us of environmental change and inspire action. Audubon works across the Western Hemisphere, driven by the understanding that what is good for birds is good for the planet. Through a collaborative, bipartisan approach across habitats, borders, and the political spectrum, Audubon drives meaningful and lasting conservation outcomes. With 800 staff and over 1.9 million supporters, Audubon is a dynamic and ever-growing force committed to ensuring a better planet for both birds and people for generations to come. Learn more at www.audubon.org and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @audubonsociety.