Flood Control Project On Death Bed

"For the farmers of south-central Mississippi, who see the changes as a triumph over nature, one job remains for the Army Corps of Engineers: building two huge pumps near the Steele Bayou gates. They believe the $220 million flood control project could increase their crop yield on marginal land. That, in turn, would increase their federal subsidies."

"The Environmental Protection Agency has notified the corps that it intends to veto the pumps - the first time in more than a decade that the agency has used this unilateral power."

"The project's opponents and supporters agree it would destroy or degrade at least 67,000 acres of wetlands, four times the size of Manhattan. The area affected, an E.P.A. official wrote to the corps earlier this year, represents 'some of the richest wetland and aquatic resources in the nation - a breeding and spawning ground for fish and a haven for migratory fowl.'"