‘Systemic racism’ plagues neighborhoods near endangered MS Coast waterway, group says
Turkey Creek on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, surrounded by historically Black communities in North Gulfport, has made the list of America’s Top 10 Most Endangered Rivers, American Rivers announced Tuesday.
The nonprofit conservation organization based in Washington included Turkey Creek on the list because of development plans that threaten the historic watershed, a news release said. The organization says the Black communities surrounding the waterway have suffered from ‘systemic racism’ as state and federal agencies permit harmful development.
“The America’s Most Endangered Rivers report is a call to action to save rivers facing urgent decisions,” Olivia Dorothy of American Rivers said in the news release. “Turkey Creek and its communities will suffer more pollution, flooding and injustice unless Mississippi state agencies step up to protect the creek and the area’s unique heritage.”
Residents of Turkey Creek and surrounding communities hope the designation will bring attention to their efforts to preserve their neighborhoods.
“We’re hoping that we will get noticed by the people who need to understand the fight we are in,“ said Ruth Story, executive director of the Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization based in Gulfport. “It’s a fight that’s been going on quite awhile.”
EEECHO and its allies, including the National Council of Negro Women and Sierra Club, also hope the Biden administration will be sympathetic to their cause. President Joe Biden has established environmental justice as a cornerstone of a new focus on climate change.
Dorothy told the Sun Herald that community members and partner organizations requested the listing.
“We always have a lot of requests come in, a lot of applications,” she said. “We want to look at rivers that have something we can influence in that year, so there has to be a discreet influence point that’s coming up,” Dorothy said.
“This listing is a really good tool to bring about change on the rivers. We’ve had a lot of success influencing permit decisions and getting people engaged in the decision-making process.”
Two projects pose danger, groups say
The Coalition to Protect and Preserve Forest Heights, one of the neighborhoods in the Turkey Creek watershed, has been joined by EEECHO and other groups in appealing a U.S. Department of Transportation decision to grant the city of Gulfport $20.5 million for new and improved roads that would link the commercial corridor north and south of I-10 on U.S. 49.
Community residents say the roadways will lead to further development, filling more wetlands that will exacerbate flooding, and adding to heavy traffic that causes air and noise pollution in their communities.
Residents for decades have successfully fended off commercial development of about 1,000 acres, much of it wetlands, between their neighborhoods and Prime Outlets shopping center. The property is owned by Jerard Ward of Louisiana, whose father, Butch Ward, was never able to develop the land when he owned it.
Residents and nonprofit supporters also are appealing a Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality permit that would allow the port to develop property contaminated by arsenic at the intersection of 34th Avenue and 33rd Street.
The port says its project will not disturb the toxic materials, but residents fear lead and arsenic will seep from the site into neighborhood ditches and area streams, including Turkey Creek.
A hydrologist and other experts are testifying about the dangers. The port has its own experts who say the proposed military storage yard will not disturb the lead and arsenic, much of which has been buried and contained beneath a clay cap.
Residents worry that more development will push residents from their homes. The Turkey Creek community was founded by former slaves, while Forest Heights was developed from a National Council of Negro Women model to foster African-American home ownership.
‘Systemic racism’ plagues decisions, group says
American Rivers cites both the roadways and the port development proposals as dangers to Turkey Creek.
American Rivers describes Turkey Creek in its listing as a culturally significant body of water where Black residents could swim, fish boat and hold baptisms. The creek was a sanctuary during segregation, when the sand beach that stretches across Harrison County on the Mississippi Sound was closed to Black people.
The organization and it’s partners called on state agencies to withhold permits or funding for development proposals until a full evaluation — including determining health, safety and economic impacts to the creek — is completed.
“In addition, American Rivers urged the Biden administration’s interagency council on environmental justice to examine Turkey Creek and its associated communities as a case study to investigate the systemic racism that continues to plague development decisions,” the organization said.
The American Rivers designation came three days shy of the first anniversary of community leader Rose Johnson’s death. Kathy Egland of EEECHO hosted a tribute Tuesday night to Johnson’s work.
Derrick Evans of the Turkey Creek Community Initiatives said Johnson was a “singularly extraordinary person” who led development of a watershed plan for Turkey Creek and surrounding communities.
“Since 2004, this inclusive exercise in community problem-solving and African-American self-determination has led to some restoration of our eroding cultural and environmental resources,” he was quoted as saying in the American Rivers news release.
“More needs to be done. As Rose would say, ‘Projects or discussions that ignore 16 years and hundreds of pages of community visioning, planning and progress are irresponsible, disrespectful and unjust.”
This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 1:20 PM.
