TESTIMONY
OF JIM ROBINSON, JR.
OF PINHOOK,
MISSOURI
BEFORE THE UNITED
STATES SENATE
COMMITTEE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
(S. 1987)
June 18, 2002
Chairman Jeffords, Senator Smith, Senator Bond and Members of the Committee:
Again for
the record, my name is Jim Robinson and I am here on behalf of the people of
Pinhook, Missouri. Pinhook is located
in the Southeastern corner of Missouri in the Bird’s Point/New Madrid Floodway
about half-way between Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis just a few miles from
the Mississippi River. I have lived
there most of my life. The land that I
farm was purchased by my father when we moved from Tennessee. My people were not allowed to own certain
lands or live in town. We were only
able to purchase the land that the Mississippi River flooded. We cleared the land with our own hands with
axes and mules. We built up our own
community and are proud of what we have and what we have done. Pinhook is our home and it is what I want to
pass along to my children and grandchildren.
My entire
life I have lived with floods on the Mississippi River destroying what I have
worked for. Where we live the
Mississippi River backs up through a 1500-foot hole in the levee that was left
there when the levees were built in the 30's.
So every few years the river comes up and backs through that hole and we
get flooded.
I don’t
know how many of you have ever been through a flood and know what it is like to
have raw sewage in your home. What it
is like when you get out of bed in the morning to have to wade through that
mess. To have your children live in
it. For them to have to ride in a
tractor drawn open-wagon through the water just to get to a school bus. My people should not have to live that way
year after year.
If I go
north to St. Louis I see fine homes surrounded by big levees, or if I go south
to Memphis I see that same thing. Those
people have been able to build their levees and protect their homes. I don’t want to take that away from them, I
just want the same thing for us.
There has
been a project on the list for years that would close our levee and give us
some relief. And we thought we were
close to ending the problem. But then
in 1986, Congress raised the local cost share and we were told that we had to
come up with 35% of a multi-million dollar project. We farm some, our children work in small factories, we pay taxes,
but we cannot afford 20 million dollars.
Finally in
1993 through the Enterprise Community program we were able to get some help and
the local share was reduced back down to 5%.
I thought we were going to get to close that hole. The Corps of Engineers went to work and we
were on our way. That was nine years
ago and we had a flood again this year.
I have met
with people here in Washington and they all seem like they want to help, like
they understand what we are up against.
But every time we get close, somebody from the EPA or Fish and Wildlife
Service says the Corps has to go study some more. I am tired of studying the same old mud.
I have
heard about what some of you want to do to the Corps of Engineers. All of the technical stuff is for someone
else to comment on. I want to talk to
you a little about the people that this will effect. I have lived along the Mississippi River my whole life, I helped
evacuate homes in the Flood of 1937, we worked day and night. Over the years the Corps has built levees
for the city areas and has slowly worked down to us – it has taken most of my
life for them to finally get to us.
Now, after all of that work has been done you want to say to us that is
it, no more unless you pay for half of it.
You did not say that to the city folks, but after all these years when
we finally are going to get our share you want to cut our piece in half.
And you and
I both know that there is no way a farming community in the Mississippi Delta
is going to be able to pay for half of any water project. This is not reforming the Corps of
Engineers, that is just a nice way of saying you people are not going to get
any help. It looks better in the
newspapers to say you are reforming something.
I was here in Washington over two years ago for a meeting with the EPA, Fish & Wildlife, the Council on Environmental Quality and the Corps. I was told then that the problems that were delaying our project would be fixed. Since then the only ones that have not drug their feet have been the Corps. Everytime someone comes down to look at the project they promise me that they are going back and find a solution and I never see them again, I see someone else who tells me the same thing. But I always see the same faces from the Corps and they come back and tell me that they are ready to build, but they can’t because the other agencies hold them up. From where I sit it looks like you are trying to reform the wrong group.
Another
point that I understand that is being considered is how the Corps figures its
benefits. Some people don’t want them
to use increased crop production as a benefit.
Is there something wrong with trying to make a living farming now? I farmed all last week and if I can increase
how many bushels of soybeans I harvest this fall I think that is good. It is good for me, it is good for my family
and it is good for this country.
Farmers grow food and pay taxes and that has to benefit everybody.
That concludes my prepared remarks. I will be glad to answer any questions that you have.