I attended both public hearings conducted by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, to consider the Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Pearl River Basin Mississippi Federal Flood Risk Management Project, on Tuesday July 29, 2025 — the first at 2 p.m. at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church and the second at 6 p.m. at the Mississippi Public Broadcasting Auditorium.
The two could not have been more different: The first hearing provided opportunity for people pursuing development to contribute — conspicuously the Mayor of Jackson during his honeymoon, defining whether special interests or the public interest are uppermost — and the second hearing offered a forum for community members working during the day to speak truth to power. It will be telling, having observed what occurred, to ascertain whether public hearings are timed to advantage people pursuing an agenda of those “buttering their bread” or individuals advocating goals other than the almighty dollar.
I had no intention of commenting. I was unable to do otherwise after assessing the dynamics:
I submitted the following letter into the record before the Monday August 18, 2025 deadline:
“Dear Sir or Madam,
“Only one solution will provide relief from flooding: Restore the floodplain and allow it to do what it is there to do: absorb rising water.
“Beyond the fact that development along the Pearl River — whether in the name of flood control or not — is smoke-and-mirrors that cannot ultimately accomplish what it is said to do, cities do not benefit from additional concrete but are instead admired for abundant green spaces.
“Why not allow the Pearl River to be an amenity for an urban area that cries for wild spaces?
“I have canoed and kayaked the Pearl River from the reservoir spillway to the Lakeland Drive bridge over many years. The experience is much more exalted that a stagnant manmade lake with development beside it.
“Those clamoring to build projects that put concrete into the ground will stop at nothing in their zeal to mar God’s creation — thinking that they can improve upon what God has wrought — but Henry David Thoreau had it right, in his essay “Walking,””, published in The Atlantic, in June 1862:
“‘In Wildness is the preservation of the world.’
“Thank you. Sincerely yours, Jay Wiener”
I recently enjoyed the pleasure of exploring restaurants on the reservoir rather than those habitually patronized between Capitol Street and Northside Drive. How many friends and acquaintances from Jackson did my dinner companion and I encounter? Not one finger is needed to count them: So much for suggestion that the capital city clamors for another stagnant manmade lake with development beside it.
A more compelling case was made by those having a vision for urban access to a pristine riverine ecosystem; favoring habitat benefiting waterfowl and other wildlife; and preferring property buyouts over hollow promises, pretty lies.
My father often observed that low-lying land flooded long before [whoever complained to him] built there; assuming obvious risk that a house built in the floodplain would inundate with floodwater. He inveighed against developers who created subdivisions in places where homes ought not be.
The only way to eliminate the flooding of properties where none should exist is to remove them and relish the presence of the semitropical environment with which mid-Misssissippi is blessed.
People who shall profit handsomely from socialism for the rich — a pork barrel project enriching the haves, the profits from which will be pocketed before prevarications become palpable — will not be present when their name is mud: Responsible public citizens must ensure that no one reaps reward for what is wrong in the first instance, wrong in the last analysis, and wrong at every point in between.
After completing this piece, Deutsche Welle — Germany’s equivalent of the BBC — posted an article emphasizing that advocated above:
“‘We had taken too much space from the river,’ said Hans De Preter, head of infrastructure at Flemish Waterway, which manages rivers and canals in Flanders. ‘We had to give some of the space back.’”
https://www.dw.com/en/how-wetlands-help-cities-fight-floods-in-belgium/…
Jay Wiener is a Northsider
