Andrew Whitehurst

File image of North Gulfport residents traveling to Jackson in August 2019 to oppose the State Port's water quality cetification for a wetland fill on Port property. Photo Credit: A. Whitehurst, Healthy Gulf.

North Gulfport Residents Defend their Wetlands and Community Health Against Port Project

/ By / Advance Climate Justice, Protect Clean Water

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.

North Gulfport Residents Defend their Wetlands and Community Health Against Port Project Read More »

Yazoo basin cypress trees

Healthy Gulf Joins Conservation Groups in Yazoo Pumps Suit againt EPA

/ By / Advance Climate Justice, Conserve Gulf Resources, Protect Clean Water

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.

Healthy Gulf Joins Conservation Groups in Yazoo Pumps Suit againt EPA Read More »

Yazoo Pumps (Again)

/ By / Advance Climate Justice, Protect Clean Water

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.

Yazoo Pumps (Again) Read More »

Louisiana (LDWF) Draft Oyster Strategic Plan

Louisiana’s 2020 Draft Oyster Management and Rehabilitation Plan – A Quick Look

/ By / Advance Climate Justice, Conserve Gulf Resources, Louisiana Coast, Oysters

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.

Louisiana’s 2020 Draft Oyster Management and Rehabilitation Plan – A Quick Look Read More »

Update on One Lake and Pearl River: Letters to Army Corps, FOIA, Turtles, September Clean Sweep Event

Update on One Lake and Pearl River: Letters to Army Corps, FOIA, Turtles, September Clean Sweep Event

/ By / Conserve Gulf Resources, One River, No Lake, Protect Clean Water

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.

Update on One Lake and Pearl River: Letters to Army Corps, FOIA, Turtles, September Clean Sweep Event Read More »

Pearl Map Turtle. Credit: Cris Hagen, University of Georgia, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory

Suit wins agreement to determine protected status for Map turtles in Pearl and Pascagoula Rivers

/ By / Conserve Gulf Resources, One River, No Lake

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.

Suit wins agreement to determine protected status for Map turtles in Pearl and Pascagoula Rivers Read More »

The Yazoo Pumps are a bad deal for the Mississippi Delta

The Yazoo Pumps are a bad deal for the Mississippi Delta

/ By / Advance Climate Justice, Protect Clean Water

We need your help to stop a project that would cost $400 million dollars, destroy 200,000 acres of wetlands, and only be 32% effective at stopping flooding—leaving 68% of the recently flooded Mississippi Delta vulnerable to future floods. The Yazoo Pumps simply don’t add up for communities impacted by flooding or for taxpayers.

The Yazoo Pumps are a bad deal for the Mississippi Delta Read More »

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