| "Clarion-Ledger"
flood plan is all wet
 In
response to the latest editorial regarding the Yazoo Backwater
Pump Project, I must say that I am among many Mississippians
who find The Clarion-Ledger's position to be inconsistent.
While
The Clarion-Ledger continually crusades against this flood-control
project for the Delta--one of the poorest regions of our state
and nation--it promotes with considerable zeal the great need
and urgency to control flooding in the city of Jackson, albeit
not on the same day's editorial page. I think we need to do
both.
Unlike
The Clarion-Ledger Editorial Board, Congressman Bennie Thompson,
Sen. Thad Congressman Bennie Thompson, Sen. Thad Cochran and
myself are charged with representing an entire populace. We
are here to represent Mississippi's people and to be responsive
to the communities they comprise. Our approach on south Delta
flooding must be broad, beneficial and reflective of people
actually living in the Mississippi Delta, instead of outside
our state.
Judging from decades of input from Delta officials, citizens
and other Delta leaders, I am convinced that the Yazoo Backwater
Pump is a worthwhile project.
 The
Clarksdale Press Register--a paper whose readers and employees
actually live and work in the Delta--said it best in a Jan.
22 editorial, noting that opponents incorrectly point to "wealthy
planters" as being the beneficiaries of this project.
The paper correctly argued that quite the opposite is the
case, as
pump opponents are ignoring the "critical need for economic
development in perhaps Mississippi's poorest region."
The area's double-digit unemployment is without doubt linked
to the land's tendency to flood.
If The Clarion-Ledger, Washington bureaucrats and some environmental
groups have their way in the south Delta, a lot of folks there
will have to start packing their bags. While The Clarion-Ledger
quite rightfully advocates the need to construct flood control
projects in Jackson, the only solution to south Delta flooding
I see promoted by The Clarion-Ledger editorial board is for
the government to forcefully take the property of residents
and businesses there and then simply just let the land flood.
Forcing thousands of people to uproot doesn't sound like much
of a plan to me.
Let's be clear: No project by man is going to totally stop
flooding in the Mississippi Delta, but we can work to minimize
the loss of life and property in future floods, which is exactly
what this project will do.
Minimizing flooding is what we have done in Mississippi for
more than 100 years, and we have made dramatic progress since
the disastrous 1927 flood.
Just think, if The Clarion-Ledger's current "plan"
for south Delta flooding had been employed in Jackson for
all those years, the levees around Jackson's Pearl River would
have never been built, and the paper's newsroom might be underwater
right now.
Trent Lott
United States Senator
Pascagoula
From The Clarion-Ledger
January 30, 2003
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