With more development in downtown Jackson and Flowood, another flood similar to the 1979 Easter Flood would have far more devastating consequences.
Keith Turner, attorney for the Rankin-Hinds levee board, spoke recently to the Metro Jackson Lions Club.
Turner said another Easter Flood would cause an estimated $2.5 billion in damage, compared to the $200 million to $300 million caused by the 1979 event.
Buildings affected in downtown Jackson would include the Jackson Convention Complex, the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Westin Hotel and the new federal courthouse.
Those are in addition to the structures that were inundated with water when the levees were breached nearly 40 years ago.
Farther south, the Savanna Street Wastewater Treatment Plant would again be flooded, causing untreated wastewater to flow downstream, he said.
Nearly 40 years later, the metro area is still protected by the same levee system that failed in 1979.
The metro area flooded again in 1983, and has had several close calls since.
Turner recalls that in 2014, the river had risen above flood stage when a heavy storm expected to drop between eight and 10 inches of rain was coming in from the west.
Flood stage for the river is between 24 and 28 feet. That April, the river had risen to 31 and 32 feet, Turner said.
“They said if we got eight to 10 inches the flood would have been worse than ‘79,” he said. “(The storm) ended up going south.”
The capital city was spared, but many still cast a cautious eye on the river during the rainy spring and winter months.
To prevent flooding, the levee board is backing the One Lake Plan.
The plan includes building a 1,500 acre lake on the Pearl River between Hinds and Rankin counties.
The lake would run from north of Lakeland Drive to south of I-20 near Richland.
The roughly $320 million project includes relocating the river’s existing weir, excavating 25 million yards of river channel and reconfiguring the levee system, Turner said.
The lake would essentially widen the river, and allow it to move more water downstream in the event of heavy rains.
In the event of another Easter Flood, the lake would reduce flooding by at least 90 percent.
As an added bonus, the project calls for the creation of hundreds to thousands of acres of developable waterfront property.
The project has been under review since 2013.
The first phase included comparing One Lake to other potential flood control projects planned for the Pearl River.
From there, the findings had to be signed off on by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg.
The Vicksburg district has authority over the Pearl River drainage basin in Hinds and Rankin counties.
From there, the findings went through an “agency technical review,” where they were evaluated by a separate corps office.
The third and final phase is the independent external review, where the project is reviewed by a team of experts from across the country, Turner said.
“We had to pay for that ourselves,” Turner said.
In December, the levee board brought on Battelle consultants to do the work.
“They have (a team) of scientific experts – an environmental expert, a hydrology expert, a NEPA expert,” he said. “They started work in January or February.”
NEPA is the National Environmental Policy Act, which spells out the review processes for major federal projects that could have a significant impact on the environment.
One Lake is opposed by some environmentalists who worry about the impact it will have on certain endangered species, as well as river flow downstream.
Species include the Gulf sturgeon and the ringed sawback turtle. However, it is questionable whether sturgeon have been spotted this far north of the Gulf of Mexico.
One Lake was chosen by the levee board to quell environmental concerns. The project has less impact on nearby bottomland hardwoods, and only affects a portion of the river that was previously channelized.
The river was straightened in the mid-1960s.
