Protect the Bogue Chitto
Help stop Paradise Ranch R/V Resort’s permit application to pollute the beautiful Bogue Chitto River with up to 75,000 GALLONS PER DAY of treated human waste and other contaminants!
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Biggest changes in 20 years to Mississippi’s State-wide Water Quality Standards
Mississippi has drafted the most significant changes to its state water quality standards in over 20 years. The amendments are a big deal and are part of the State’s Triennial Review of Water Quality Standards which is required by the Clean Water Act and the U.S. EPA.
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North Gulfport Residents Defend their Wetlands and Community Health Against Port Project
Citizens from North Gulfport oppose wetland filling that would allow the State Port to build a rail/truck transfer facility next to their neighborhoods. Environmental Justice issues are contained in the appeal. Residents who live adjacent to the project site are concerned that soil and water pollution contained there will be mobilized with development and affect their health, property and quality of life. A 70 year old brownfield site – a closed fertilizer plant – has left soil and groundwater tainted by arsenic, lead and carcinogens that could find their way to the surface if the site is developed. The evidentiary hearing on the Mississippi State Port Authority’s Clean Water Act State water quality certification began this week at the MDEQ Commission Room in Jackson, but is continued until May.
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Healthy Gulf Joins Conservation Groups in Yazoo Pumps Suit againt EPA
Healthy Gulf joined American Rivers, National Audubon Society and Sierra Club in a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, asking a federal judge to rule on whether EPA’s 2008 Clean Water Act veto of the Yazoo Backwater Pump project still applies to a 2020 Army Corps of Engineers re-do. The project’s pumping capacity and purpose remain the same as the earlier project which was vetoed during the George W. Bush Administration. The project’s impacts to wetlands and habitats remain significant in the 2020 re-do version, and the Conservation Groups maintain that the veto still prohibits the pumps. EPA has used a Clean Water Act veto on a development project 13 times since 1972. The agency has slightly modified some vetoes after-the-fact, but has never completely revoked one.
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Mississippi’s 2020 (virtual) Coastal Restoration Summit
This is a report on some of the restoration subjects covered at MDEQ’s 2020 Coastal Restoration Summit which was held in a virtual “Zoom conference” format on Nov. 10th.
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Thank You for protecting the Gulf’s deep-sea Corals
The actions of Healthy Gulf members and supporters helped send a coral protection message to the Gulf Council. Your Action alert letters made a difference!
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Yazoo Pumps (Again)
The controversial Yazoo Backwater Area pump project in the lower Mississippi Delta is again being advanced by the Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Mississippi. Much weight is given to a single new piece of Corps-sponsored research on soil moisture that the agency uses to conclude that a large pumping plant will not cause present wetland areas to change to non-wetland classification. The Corps’s justification of the pumps on these wetland effects is presented in a new Supplemental EIS that could open the door for the Environmental Protection Agency to revisit and rescind its 2008 veto of the project under the Clean Water Act.
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Louisiana’s 2020 Draft Oyster Management and Rehabilitation Plan – A Quick Look
Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries recently introduced its new Draft Strategic Plan for Oyster Management and Rehabilitation. The plan has twelve initiatives, a 5-year time frame for implementation and will require a total budget of $132 million.
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Update on One Lake and Pearl River: Letters to Army Corps, FOIA, Turtles, September Clean Sweep Event
This summary of news relevant to the Pearl River so far in 2020 includes notes on Jackson’s “One Lake” project, recent letters to the Secretary of the Army from Louisiana and Mississippi, Jackson Mississippi’s continuing sewage spills, the Pearl River Map Turtle’s status under the Endangered Species Act, and the Pearl River Clean Sweep – river clean up days in September.
Suit wins agreement to determine protected status for Map turtles in Pearl and Pascagoula Rivers
A recent federal court suit by Healthy Gulf and the Center for Biological Diversity resulted in a settlement that requiries the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop delaying the listing determination under the Endangered Species Act for two map turtles. These turtles are endemics in the Pearl and Pascagoula River systems, and have been surveyed recently for the health of their populations.