VICKSBURG, Miss. (WJTV) – The Army Corps of Engineers announced details of a new Yazoo Backwater pump plan to community members in Vicksburg on Friday, May 5.

This is the latest effort to mitigate the devastating flooding felt in the Mississippi Delta.

U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) met with community members on Friday and emphasized the need for the pumps.

“We’ve been at this a long time, so we’re going to have to prove to them that we can get this across the finish line, that we can actually install the pumps, and their lives will get better, and that they can look at their children and their grandchildren and say, ‘You know, they did come to our rescue,’ and things are going to be better that hopefully, we will not experiences floods,” said Hyde-Smith.

“This will give job creators, farmers, families the certainty that the flooding will end at a certain elevation, and they can be confident to build their lives above those elevations,” stated Wicker.

However, conservationists said the pumps are an agricultural drainage project that will not protect communities from flooding.

“We are stunned that the Biden Administration would choose to advance a plan that abdicates its conservation, climate, and environmental justice commitments by willfully putting the vetoed Yazoo Pumps back on the table,” said Jill Mastrototaro, Mississippi Policy Director for Audubon Delta.