Is it possible that the LeFleur Lakes proposal—a project to damn the Pearl River and create a system of lakes in the name of flood control and Hinds/Rankin development—isn't the only solution for the Pearl?

You wouldn't know it from the press the LeFleur Lakes plan gets in local media and print, but the answer is simple: Yes.

The alternatives certainly deserve more coverage, discussion and study.

Contrary to opinions printed very recently in The Clarion-Ledger and the Northside Sun, LeFleur Lakes is not a foregone conclusion. The jury is still out on whether or not it is truly a flood-control plan at all, while all interested parties are waiting on a formal report by the Army Corps of Engineers.

In the meantime, the long-planned Airport Parkway project to connect Jackson directly to its airport is casting some doubt on the LeFleur Lakes plan as it's currently drawn.

Indeed, the last time the Corps of Engineers studied the Pearl and its flooding issues, its recommendation was a combination of dry detention basins placed further north on the Pearl, improvements to the Barnett Reservoir and shoring up of the current levee system in Jackson. That solution failed politically because of unwillingness from up-river communities to accept the dry dams that would have helped Jackson Metro's flooding.

As solutions go, however, it was a pretty good one. After all, it balanced flood control and engineering with doing the least damage to the river's ecosystem in the process.

LeFleur Lakes, by contrast, is all about engineering. Dredge the riverbed to move water more quickly out of Jackson. Redirect water using massive mechanical pumps. Raise and lower lake levels. Build a new island in the middle of the lake. Mitigate by replanting trees elsewhere. So on and so on.

It may work. But what if it doesn't? What happens if the plan itself is flawed in some fundamental way, as was the plan to channel the Pearl years ago, resulting in the eyesore that it is under I-55 in downtown?

Or what if the plan is good, but the execution suffers.

In early 2005, I was contracted by the Mississippi Wildlife Federation (in conjunction with the Pearl River Basin Coalition) to produce a video to look at the effect that losing thousands of acres of urban forest along the Pearl could have on quality of life. (Full disclosure: I was recommended to them as a freelance filmmaker who had my own equipment and editing experience. I have never been a member of either organization.)

I learned the following—all those millions of trees process carbon dioxide, pollutants and rainwater while contributing to the incredibly complex ecosystems along rivers. Too much development along the river—or too many trees lost—and you could significantly alter both the river ecosystem and quality of life for the humans around it.

In the research and filming of the video (much of which was done by Ken Ladd, my friend and Donna Ladd's brother), we took a look at Lakeland Drive development that fed waste and run-off into the Pearl. I saw an Eastover subdivision near the river that began as a complete clear-cut of a heavily wooded area, replanted with sad, tiny trees around makeshift ponds on the proposed lots. And I've seen less than "best practices" by some of our developers in these high-growth areas around the Metro that have sprung up in former fields and wilderness—silt issues, leaking diesel drums, retaining fences that fail to retain from neglect and so on.

I'm left to wonder: Are these the same folks we will count on to develop in-and-around the LeFleur Lakes project? Just from a pragmatic, conservationist point of view, that concerns me mightily.

For one day of filming, I spent a very eventful day canoeing down the Pearl from the Reservoir spillway to LeFleur's State Park. What I encountered amazed me (I'd never been before)—walking trails, animal habitats, languid sand bars and beautiful old-growth cypress swamps. I also saw cruising canoeists, hard-working kayakers, laid-back fishermen, and families of all shapes and sizes enjoying a very "back country" sort of day right in the center of the Jackson Metro.

Later, Ken and I decided to get in his truck and take a drive to explore other options. We ended up in Athens, Ga., where we visited with the people who run the North Oconee River Greenway, which is 13 miles of walking and riding trails that start near downtown, wide and paved, with parks and public spaces, and then end up narrow and challenging for joggers and hikers as they head northward along the river, past a nature center and on up to Lake Chapman.

Guess what Athens learned? The Green-way is now a tourism destination as well as an extraordinary resource for local families, young professionals and students. Bike races, runs and walks are increasingly popular, filling the local motels and restaurants. The Greenway improved quality of life in Athens, as it has created an enormous urban park filled with water, greenery, and plenty of space for pick-up football games or Frisbee exhibitions.

And, yes, a number of developers have made a killing with condos and other new developments within walking and biking distance of the Greenway.

I'm not a hydrologist, engineer, scientist or politician. But I've looked at this issue a little closer than many people in Jackson have, from the point of view of a filmmaker and citizen. My conclusion is simple: LeFleur Lakes is not the only solution to flood control and economic development, and there may be better ones. A biking, hiking, walking, running, racing, canoeing, fishing, sunning, transportation resource that conserves the river as a natural resource may do more to boost economic development in Jackson's future than could another motor-boat lake just south of the one we already have.

We need a serious discussion about the LeFleur Lakes project in this community, and it needs to happen soon. It's up to the mayor, City Council, the Hinds Board of Supervisors and other interested municipalities to get together, hash out a schedule for public discussion and make absolutely sure that all sides are heard.

Previous Comments

ID

74079

Comment

You can view Todd and Ken's film on options for the Pearl (other than the LeFleur Lakes half-baked development idea) at Rainbow Plaze Thursday night during ArtMix.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-12-06T18:32:46-06:00

ID

74080

Comment

So Donna has a brother? Donna, who got in the most trouble, you or him? :-)

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2006-12-06T19:38:39-06:00

ID

74081

Comment

He's 16 years older than I am, so I never remember living with him, so it's hard to say. I've definitely gotten into more *public* controversy over the years (smile). But he's way cool. Lives in a solar house in the Ozarks, former Air Force pilot, now bodyworker (cranio-sacrum work, for instance), filmmaker. Can do anything. Great wife, too—a great writer and hands-down the most organized person I know. Niece is a comparative religion professor in Colorado with a hunk of a rock 'n' roller husband. And that's just the offspring from one brother. The combination of my mama and daddy created an interesting bloodline, if I do say so myself. ;-)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-12-06T19:45:33-06:00

ID

74082

Comment

And that's just the offspring from one brother. The combination of my mama and daddy created an interesting bloodline, if I do say so myself. ;-) Sho nuff. :-P

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2006-12-06T19:53:51-06:00

ID

74083

Comment

Well, I AM a hydraulic engineer, and I'd like to see the riparian wetlands between the reservois and I55 preserved as much as possible. I think the Lafleur Lakes plan probably would work in the sense tat it would provide flood mitigation, but I haven't studied the numer well enough to know if they have quantifid it accurately -- that is, HOW wel it would work. But I think there could be other options as well. I am eagerly awaiting the EIS, to see what the Corps has to say. In the meantime, I'd liek to see what the analysis yield is they only build one lake between I-55 and south of I-20. Anyway, I like walking in those riparian wetlands, and watching the lazy brown river meander its way through those cypress stands. I'd like to see that preserved if at all possible.

Author

GLB

Date

2006-12-06T23:30:50-06:00

ID

74084

Comment

Once again, I apologize for my typing. I am sitting in a hotel in Phildelphia PA, and it's late, and I'm a bit sleepy. That's not why I type so bad.... that's just why I sent the &^%$# message without checking my typing first.

Author

GLB

Date

2006-12-06T23:33:09-06:00