PEARL RIVER COUNTY, Miss.—Pearl River County officials are working to restore water flow to the East Pearl River, a long-planned effort aimed at improving recreation, supporting wildlife habitat and benefiting communities along the river.
The project remains in the planning and permitting process and will require continued coordination among local, state and federal partners before construction can begin, according to Pearl River County Economic Development Director Lindsay Ward. She said no construction timeline has been finalized.
Ward said Sen. Angela Hill, R-Picayune, who represents District 40, and Rep. Stacey Wilkes, R-Picayune, who represents District 108, have worked alongside county officials throughout the process to help move the project forward.
Ward said restoring water flow would provide environmental, recreational and economic benefits for communities along the Pearl River.
“You have a lot of homes that are built along the Pearl River that have the potential to lose a significant amount of economic value,” she said. “(It’s) one of the biggest risks is to the community—which has this entire culture and way of life along the Pearl River and Walkiah Bluff—that is truly at risk.”
She said restoring water levels would also improve access to Walkiah Bluff Park and the nearby public boat launch by allowing residents and visitors to more easily launch boats and kayaks.
“Think about the community benefits of having not only the water flow but also a beautified park and scenic area where families in those communities, as well as visitors, can come,” Ward said. “They can get out in their kayaks, they can launch their boats, and they have enough water to launch them, too.”
Ward said the effort stems from an environmental impact study completed in the early 1990s that recommended maintaining a 50-50 split in water flow between the Pearl River in Mississippi and the East Pearl River, which forms part of the Mississippi-Louisiana border.
To help maintain that balance, the Walkiah Bluff Weir was constructed to regulate water flow into the East Pearl River. Ward said the study also anticipated the structure would require significant rehabilitation or replacement after about 25 years to continue operating as intended.
Ward said heavy spring flooding in 2022 caused the structure to fail, preventing it from directing water into the East Pearl River as designed.
She said the reduced flow left portions of the river so shallow that boating and other recreational activities became difficult.
“We had a dedicated team of locals and our state legislators who tried to get both the state of Mississippi and what, at the time, was the local entity responsible for maintaining the structure to get it back up to par,” Ward said.
According to Ward, responsibility for maintaining the structure previously rested with the Pearl River Basin Development District. The district was created by the Mississippi Legislature in 1964 to oversee water resources throughout the Pearl River Basin before later ceasing operations.
Ward said county officials continue to work with state and federal partners to complete the planning, permitting and funding requirements needed before the project can move into construction.
This article first appeared on RHCJC and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
