Mississippi’s Pascagoula River is an amazing natural resource, home to a dazzling diversity of plants and animals and renowned for its vibrant marshes and wonderful fishing. Known as the “Singing River” for the mysterious music that is heard as you approach the water, the Pascagoula River is also in danger from a proposal to hollow out a series of salt domes near Richton, Mississippi for oil storage. This plan would involve pumping 50 million gallons of water from the Pascagoula River every day for 5-6 years to dissolve underground salt and then dumping the salty, polluted byproduct off the coast of one of Mississippi’s barrier islands. This process could have serious consequences for marine life like dolphins and redfish and threaten businesses and jobs that rely on a healthy coastal ecosystem. To pour salt on the wound, this wholesale environmental destruction would cost taxpayers roughly $17 billion. The Department of Energy has proposed the elimination of this expensive and destructive pork barrel project, but Congress still has the power to reinstate the funding. You can make sure that doesn’t happen. Click here to tell Congress that enough is enough – it’s time to halt the salt dome project!Our nation faces a variety of pressing challenges, from continuing economic worries to addressing the causes and consequences of global warming. Amidst all these significant challenges, it’s hard to believe that Congress and the federal government would even consider squandering $17 billion on this environmentally destructive project. It’s time that the federal government focused its efforts on ending our dependence on oil rather than squandering precious dollars on solving yesterday’s problems. Send a strong message to Congress today asking them to stop the salt dome madness before it’s too late!Raleigh Hoke is GRN’s Mississippi Organizer
