Flood Control in Jackson, Mississippi: A Missed Opportunity to Reduce Inequitable Flooding Impacts?

The city of Jackson, Mississippi, has experienced frequent, devastating floods, with flooding along tributaries of the Pearl River that cross the city being widespread and disproportionately affecting low-income neighborhoods. We reviewed the history of flood management and public access along the Pearl River, conducted community meetings with flood-affected residents, visited tributaries affected by frequent flooding, assessed options to reduce flood risks for Town Creek (a tributary traversing the city center), and reviewed the 2024 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) by the US Army Corps, which proposed a flood risk management project. Our community meetings, site visits, and interviews with residents highlighted the frequent flooding of low-income neighborhoods along Pearl River tributaries. Thus, a flood risk reduction program should effectively address tributary flooding. In our review of the DEIS, we applied criteria from the National Environmental Protection Act indicating that environmental impact statements should provide a complete identification and description of environmental impact, and found that the DEIS failed to do this. We found that the alternative selected as the likely ‘National Economic Development’ plan would expand real-estate development opportunities while exacerbating flooding in low-income neighborhoods and increasing inequalities in Jackson.