As officials from Jackson and throughout the state took a victory lap in a press conference Monday to announce receding waters from the latest flood of the Pearl River, the conversation turned toward the future.
Specifically, the conversation turned toward The One Lake Project, a major flood control and economic development project that calls for creating a 1,500-acre lake on the Pearl River somewhere below the Ross Barnett Reservoir and north of Richland.
Talk of the project goes back to 2007 and after many iterations, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking at a final draft of the plans and hopes to make a decision on it in the near future, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in Monday’s press conference.
The project would reduce flooding by moving water downstream, and likely would have prevented 200 homes and businesses from flooding during the 2020 Pearl River Flood and would have prevented any stress following heavy rains that filled the Ross Barnett Reservoir to the brim in the last few days.
The One Lake Project could also create hundreds of acres of new waterfront property for economic development and recreation.
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Environmental concerns have been raised around this project in the past, but no critics came forward Monday.
“The One Lake Project needs to be worked on immediately,” said Credell Calhoun, president of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors.
“We need to be spared of this type of situation and the One Lake Project would do that,” he said. “We are pushing and everyone should be pushing for this so that Northeast Jackson and the rest of Jackson will be spared.”
Lumumba said the One Lake Project is further along than it ever has been before. However, he said that even if the project were to be approved today, it would still be many years before it could come to fruition.
“To date, the project is in the proper hands, and I am encouraged at the prospects of what it can do,” Lumumba said. “This flood, plus 2020 plus 1979 and 1980, all reveal that this is something we have to address as soon as possible.”
The National Weather Service announced Monday that officials cut back the discharge into the Pearl River from the Ross Barnett Reservoir by 10,000 cubic feet per second this morning. Another 5,000 was cut later in the morning and another 5,000 was expected to be cut by Tuesday morning.
This will allow the streets in north Jackson to begin draining, and NWS official Marty Pope believes most areas will be drained by Tuesday.
There will still be water in the closest areas to the river and the playing fields on Westbrook Road, however. In Terry, south of Jackson, Rosemary Road was closed as of Monday afternoon.
It had been predicted that the Pearl River would reach more than 36 feet. However, 35.37 is the highest it reached. John Sigman, general manager of the reservoir, said he hopes the level gets to 33 feet by Wednesday and to 28 feet by Thursday.
The city had two shelters set up, one in Jackson and one in Madison, that attracted one person each.
