Jackson Free Press

The LeFleur Lakes Plan might be on the ropes, project head John McGowan said in a recent Northside Sun article. Plans for a new overpass might make the project unviable, he said.

McGowan and other developers have been hashing out a plan to inundate the Pearl River floodplain on the east side of Jackson for years. The most recent incarnation involves the construction of two underwater dams, one beneath the river where it passes under I-55 and another beneath I-20, both raising the water level and creating the two lakes. Developers like McGowan want to remove the abandoned city landfill under Gallatin Street and use the dredged soil from the widened river to create an island in the middle of the bigger northern lake.

The island and the resulting waterfront property—much of it bordering land possessed by rominent landowners like McGowan—would be a windfall for real estate developers. Elected officials in both Hinds and neighboring Rankin County give it cheers for the potential new taxes it will generate, but the Army Corps of Engineers is now setting a higher price tag on the project.

Robert Muller, an engineer doing work with McGowan, told the JFP that the Corps' feasibility study of the environmental impact is more than a year late and that one Corps engineer already stated that the plan, after the addition of $195 million in expenses, is no longer feasible. The cost of the LeFleur Lakes Plan was about $165 million six years ago, which does not account for inflation. With an extra $195 million added to a more recent, undisclosed figure, the project understandably causes eyes to bulge.

"They've put levies back into it. We think they put pumps back into it, and to possibly accommodate the airport parkway, we think they've shifted the island north into a deeper channel area, which means it now costs more to create the island. They've deconstructed the LeFleur Lakes Plan to accommodate their parkway," Muller said.

Even though the Corps looks like the brick wall to the plan, Muller says he is irritated with the Airport Parkway Commission, that seems to be using the Corps' indifference to the project to push aside the LeFleur Lakes Plan with talk of a new traffic exchange which would link some downtown streets with a future route to the Jackson International Airport.

"It's our perception that they've decided to push the airport parkway in front of LeFleur Lakes because they don't think the (Corps') environmental hurdles can be overcome," Muller said. "But our argument is that we have a better idea: to include the airport parkway into LeFleur Lakes. With the same $228 million that you're spending on the elevated interchange, you could finance the whole LeFleur Lakes Project."

Muller said the Corps plan sided with the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and the Environmental Protection Agency, which argued against tampering with Jackson's wetlands because they contain rare species such as the ringed sawback turtle and the endangered gulf sturgeon. Muller argues that building the $228 million interchange, with features designed to protect wildlife, is pointless if the area gets flooded under LeFleur Lakes.

"Why spend so much money to preserve an area of the river when you're going to flood it?" Muller asks.

McGowan's flood plan faces considerable criticism from safety specialists, too. Hinds County Emergency Management Director Larry Fisher said putting a lake where city drain water is supposed to go could spell disaster for the city in a heavy rain. Many of the city creeks, such as Town Creek, flowing in predatory silence beneath Capitol Street, is already at nearly the same level as the Pearl River when it is not flooding. Raising the water level out on the wetlands means raising the water level of city creeks—unless the LeFleur Lakes plan includes very expensive pumping stations. Even with such pumps churning like mad, Fisher argues that the rain run-off will have no place to go in the event of a storm.

"If we'd had a lake in 2003, downtown would've been a flat-out catastrophe," Fisher told the JFP last May, referencing the year when Town Creek swallowed up Irby Construction in downtown Jackson.

Many environmentalists, and local biologists, look upon the idea of flooding the cypress-ridden swamp of the Pearl with horror, and cheer the Corps' hesitation to adopt the project.

Tom Pullen, a private contractor who works with the Corps, said he was not surprised that the project "turned out to be a lot more expensive than originally envisioned."

"What is happening this time is a reinforcement of what happened previously," Pullen said. "They took a look at this thing several years ago and said, 'This is ridiculous.' The Corps will always have to look pretty hard at those environmental impacts, as large as they're going to be. Any time you're talking about flooding thousands of acres of wetlands, that gets people's attention."

Muller says he is trying to spread awareness that there is an alternative to the 30- or 40-foot overpass that the Airport Parkway Commission is pushing for, and one that he thinks metro residents would prefer.

"We want people to know that there is another option out there, and for their tax dollars, what would they rather have?" Muller said, explaining that the LeFleur Lakes project could still come to fruition if it gathers enough financial and popular backing.

"Since last week, I've gotten 17 e-mail votes, and I've gotten about 10 or 20 ballots come in the mail. That story on the cover (of The Northside Sun) wasn't intended to be a ballot, but people have been cutting it out and mailing it to us," Muller said, adding that anybody wanting to voice their support for the project should visit http://www.twolake.com and cast an online ballot.

Any backers McGowan shakes out of the trees will still have to get past the Army Corps of Engineers' 404 permits division, which will not be easy but remains possible.

"I don't think you can write it off, yet," Pullen said. "Until the Corps' report comes out and you've got something to analyze, it's hard to say at this point. We need to take a wait-and-see attitude until the Corps officially speaks. If (McGowan and supporters) come up with a wetlands mitigation plan, and they had the right political support, they could pass it in spite of its problems."

Previous Comments

ID

67085

Comment

I cast a "ballot" against the Lakes plan. It's such a ridiculous and outrageous "plan" that does nothing but wipe out thousands of acres of mother nature and makes developers richer. We are losing so much greenspace in the metro area, I'm just appalled at it.. and I'm not known as an environmental nut. Seems like every time I turn around, acres of trees are being plowed down in the name of shop until you drop and it sickens me.

Author

Jo-D

Date

2006-11-08T20:29:36-06:00

ID

67086

Comment

I've said it's just a plan to make the rich developers richer. There's some great, hidden stuff through there that would be lost to this manicured garden.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-11-08T21:03:59-06:00

ID

67087

Comment

And I 'cast a ballot' for it. If done correctly, I think a lakeside development could be an incredible plus for downtown Jackson and other communities along the Pearl from here to the Reservoir. There is plenty of greenspace in Mississippi otherwise, but we need development in Jackson. One way to think of this is that 'a rising tide floats all boats' and that means jobs and a higher standard of living. Will the developers make a profit from it? Of course. That's how they stay in business. The 'great hidden stuff' is just that - hidden - and not accessible to the public. The Pearl is what's hidden when it could be as important a part of this city as the Seine is to Paris or the Rhine to Basel or the Arno to Florence or the Isar to Munich. Pick an attractive city and most of the time you'll find a river or a lake which is an integral part of the city. Jackson could benefit immensely from this development - and no, I don't work for anyone who would profit financially or politically from this plan, just feel it represents an enormous opportunity which should not be missed.

Author

lucdix

Date

2006-11-09T12:16:16-06:00

ID

67088

Comment

Please publish a list of those who constitute the Airport Parkway Commission and those who stand to gain from the construction of this additional connection between Rankin County and Jackson. Perhaps that will help us sort through some of this finger pointing. A bridge should NEVER supercede the interest of a metropolitian area. The potential for beauty and economic development is a far greater concern than another route to the airport.

Author

ChrisCavanaugh

Date

2006-11-13T09:44:54-06:00

ID

67089

Comment

Chris, I don't know if you've seen traffic stats out there recently or not but this is very badly needed. I think we can skip the two lagoons project for allowing people to get from the airport to jackson in something under two or three hours at rush "hour". Not only that, but the new and fast roads don't mean the end of development there. That's a lot of land that can be opened up, drawing money back south from Madison and West from Rankin county. We need to stop thinking in 20th Century "Jackson" terms, and think 21st Century "Jackson Metro Area". Jackson isn't going to grow again unless it's given a reason, and plopping two ponds in the middle of all that mess over there isn't going to help if you have to get to it by swamp buggy.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-11-13T16:30:34-06:00

ID

67090

Comment

Wyatt Emmerich chimed in on this. He has some pretty harsh words for environmentalists... And, I can't say that I disagree. Pretty scary. [quote]Ever wonder why the Stack is elevated? So the deer could walk under it. Guess how much that cost? About 50 million dollars. That’s a lot of taxpayer money to accommodate the deer, especially in a 60-percent forested state with a problem with deer overpopulation.[/quote] [quote]There is plenty of land in our state we can set aside to compensate for Lefleur Lakes. But it is crazy to preserve a mosquito-infested bog right smack dab in the middle of the Jackson metro area, especially when it threatens the entire future of our metro area.[/quote] It'd be different if Jackson were a huge city that's destroyed every natural resource around. But, clearly, it's not. This project needs to happen. Tomorrow.

Author

millhouse

Date

2006-12-01T19:49:06-06:00

ID

67091

Comment

Here's a plan I'd liek to see evaluated. Have the lower end flooded to create a lake (south of I-20 to just east of the crossover of I-55 over the Pearl) and then have an emergency flood control channel built between this lake and the reservoir. This channel would only be used during high flow events. That way, the most productive and beautiful riparian wetlands would be largely preserved (except for the area needed to dig the channel), and the eyesore area around the stack could be flooded. I've been poking around on the Vicksburg Corps of Engineers site, looking for the EIS on this project. I thought it was supposed to be completed in July. Does anyone have any news on this?

Author

GLB

Date

2006-12-01T20:49:57-06:00

ID

67092

Comment

Ironghost writes: Jackson isn't going to grow again unless it's given a reason, and plopping two ponds in the middle of all that mess over there isn't going to help if you have to get to it by swamp buggy. Very well said. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-12-01T21:16:39-06:00

ID

67093

Comment

[quote]Ever wonder why the Stack is elevated? So the deer could walk under it.[/quote] I take it Deer drive along Highway 80. Oh, and there wasn't a need to link up with I-20. Hey, they could have just dynamited the whole damn thing and rebuilt it. I'm sure traffic would wait 5 years. I hope like hell he was joking.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-12-01T22:04:58-06:00

ID

67094

Comment

I was wondering about that statement as well, IG... I posted it b/c I assumed he was being literal. If we really did elevate it for wildlife...that's nutty to me. But, that'd have to be some pretty tall wildlife...

Author

millhouse

Date

2006-12-02T13:19:05-06:00

ID

67095

Comment

I know there are no giraffes here. :)

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-12-02T13:47:01-06:00