These floods have increased local support for a contentious government project that would install a sprawling pumping station in the backwater area. Developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the so-called Yazoo Pumps project purports to reduce flooding while protecting farmers and minimizing environmental harm. Concerns over wetland degradation have stymied past versions of the Yazoo Pumps project. Environmentalists insist that the pumps would damage up to 90,000 acres of backwater wetlands. Irreversible impactsThe Yazoo Backwater Area in western Mississippi is home to ecologically diverse forested wetlands that depend on periodic flooding for survival.