Delta receives $8.6 million for flood and infrastructure needs

The Delta Regional Authority announced a $8.6 million investment on Thursday to fund flood control and infrastructure improvements across the Mississippi Delta.

“Accessible roads, reliable water and sewer services, and secure flood protection are essential in order to maintain existing businesses, attract new industries, and keep a community healthy and thriving,” said Corey Wiggins, the federal co-chairman of the DRA.

The DRA spends federal appropriations across eight states, including Mississippi, to help support transportation, infrastructure and other economic needs in the region.

The $8.6 million will go towards 13 projects. The announcement also mentioned another $1.8 million in matching funds.

The largest project investment is $3.2 million that will go towards economic development in Clarksdale, specifically to improve a levee and roadway. That project projects to create 56 jobs. A press release said this will attract an additional $12 million capital investment.

In total, about $2.9 million will go towards wastewater and sewer projects in Piney Woods, Charleston, Glendora, and Tunica County.

Earlier this year, the EPA listed Charleston as in “significant noncompliance” with the Clean Water Act due to reporting issues, which followed pollutant violations from the city’s wastewater system. The agency also notes recent pollution violations from the wastewater systems at the Piney Woods School as well as in Glendora.

Roughly $2.2 million will go to drinking water system improvements in Metcalfe, Greenville, and Charleston. In 2020, the EPA listed Metcalf, which serves water to about 1,000 people, as “enforcement priority” over drinking water violations, ranging from monitoring issues to contaminants in the water.

And then another $2.2 million is set to go towards drainage and storm water projects that will help Belzoni, Coldwater, Rolling Fork, Coahoma, and Tutwiler deal with flooding. The largest of those projects is $516,896 going to Belzoni.

Rolling Fork is located in the South Delta, which regularly faces backwater flooding. The city hosted a meeting in August to discuss the Yazoo Pumps, a proposed flood control project.

Below are full descriptions of the Mississippi projects from the Delta Regional Authority’s press release:

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by Alex Rozier, Mississippi Today October 6, 2022

Alex Rozier, from New York City, is Mississippi Today’s data and environment reporter. His work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Open Secrets, and on NBC.com. In 2019, Alex was a grantee through the Pulitzer Center’s Connected Coastlines program, which supported his coverage around the impact of climate change on Mississippi fisheries.