Ken Morgan says the only place that’s still like the Pearl River of his youth is upstream of the Ross Barnett Reservoir. That lake, built in the 1960s, forever altered the natural flow of the river that stretches from central Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, including passing through the entire length of Marion County. Water flows are lower, going down to very little during dry spells.
A plan to build another lake, this time below the existing reservoir, could change the habitat again.
Not that that’s always a bad thing. For better or worse, our forefathers tamed the wildness of this country to make it a place where millions of people could live and make a lot of money. Hey, that’s America. We’re proud of our success in taking a country that the Pilgrims found as a “hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men” and made it the greatest nation in the history of the world.
In the case of rivers, we dammed them up to stop them from flooding and destroying homes and businesses and used the resulting hydro-electric energy to build even more things.
Yet that’s come at a price. Consider the massive trees and multitude of animals wiped out with the old-growth forests used to build homes and tools. Or the beautiful riverbanks that are part of American folklore that have been erased to make room for consistent water levels for mansions.
Listen, I’m no tree-hugger; I choose humans over beasts.
But it’s best to consider the environmental costs of development along with the economic benefits. If nuking the environment causes more harm than good, then why do the project?
In the case of the Jackson “one lake” project, it would bring very little economic benefit to Marion County. A bunch of fancy homes and shops on the water in Jackson means little to us.
But with not a lot of our economy here tied to the river, it won’t cost us that much either. However, people in Marion County have a strong emotional attachment to the Pearl. And the project could truly cause economic distress farther down river, like at the Bogalusa paper mill and oyster beds near the Gulf.
Exactly how much the flow will be affected remains unknown. The only study I’ve been able to find was conducted by engineers for St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana. Results are included in comments the parish made to the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood & Drainage Control District in 2013.
The engineers found that the Ross Barnett Reservoir has reduced flows at Bogalusa when water is down by 80 cubic-feet-per-second. Building another lake could drop the water discharge by as much as 90 more cubic-feet-per-second, they found.
Environmental questions aside, the most galling part of the project is that it is being sold as flood control and receiving millions of dollars in government subsidies when everyone with a lick of sense knows it’s really about what developers can build along the lakefront property.
It’s another example of crony capitalism from the state’s GOP leadership from Sen. Thad Cochran on down the line. Have friends in the right places and you can get government help for your private business deals ; the rest of us plebians are left to pay for it all.
To his credit, Morgan, who represents a large part of Marion County in the state House, opposed many of his fellow Republicans on the project. He initially managed to stop the House, which always seems to be struggling to find money for other things, from borrowing $50 million for the lake project. However, a lot of voters flipped or chose to sit out the second vote, and the House passed the bill Friday. Its fate in the Senate is pending.
If the funding is passed, the money will mostly be in place to do the project. What’s next would be the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg releasing its environmental impact statement for public comment. Expect the Corps to get an earful from Marion County.
Charlie Smith is editor and publisher of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him at csmith @columbianprogress.com.
