Save Mississippi’s Turkey Creek Communities!

Mississippi’s Turkey Creek flows through and supports two historically important Black communities. One is Turkey Creek, which was established in 1866, when a small group of recently emancipated former slaves exercised their newly acquired rights of citizenship, property-ownership and self-determination to purchase and settle 320 acres. The other community is Forest Heights, which was established in 1966, as one of the nation’s first integrated home ownership developments for low-income families. Since the late 1990s, residents of these communities, plus North Gulfport, Mississippi, have had to fight efforts to develop wetlands surrounding their communities and the Creek.

In recent years, climate change has increased storm surges and the frequency of routine flooding in these communities, the impacts of which are multiplied by commercial sprawl. These issues are increasingly impacting the water quality and health of Turkey Creek as well as the health, safety and economic integrity of the Black communities alongside it.

Turkey Creek and the surrounding wetlands play a key role in absorbing flood waters and mitigating these risks. Unfortunately, they are under threat from more commercial developments. The wetlands must be protected and restored to ensure that they can continue to perform their important water absorbing ecological function. The health and well-being of these communities cannot be brushed aside any longer.

Join us in calling on the City of Gulfport, as well as state and federal officials, to listen to our concerns and stop the development of critical Turkey Creek wetlands to save the Turkey Creek and Forest Heights communities from flooding, pollution and other environmental injustice issues.

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Mayor

Billy

Hewes

City of Gulfport

Executive Director

Chris

Wells

Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality

Naima

Halim-Chestnut

EPA Region 4 Equal Opportunity Office

Co-Chair

Kim

Lambert

Environmental Justice Program, Regional Environmental Justice Interagency Working Group

Transp. Commissioner

Tom

King

MS Department of Transportation

Dep. Reg. Administrator

Michael

Browder

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Port Director

Kim

Purchner

Port of Gulfport

Dear {contact_data~salutation},

Coastal Mississippi’s Turkey Creek has supported vibrant, culturally-rich communities since the 1800s, including Turkey Creek, North Gulfport and Forest Heights. However, rampant urban sprawl and toxic contamination have eliminated forests and wetlands, increased flooding, and threatened homes. New proposed roadways and wetland fills could harm the Creek, undo recent restoration, and perpetuate further injustice to historic Black communities.

One development is a road connector route between commercial establishments and the airport that will pass just a few hundred yards from the Forest Heights community, one of the poorest communities in Gulfport. The Mississippi Department of Transportation should reject Gulfport’s BUILD Grant Application giving $20 million in federal funding for this project that will require significant filling of surrounding wetlands.

Another proposed development includes a Port of Gulfport military shipment area built on a former fertilizer site. The development will cover 16 acres and drain 3.15 acres of wetlands on a site where lead and arsenic contamination exceed regulatory limits. Experts believe this project will cause contaminants to leach into the creek, endangering the health and safety of local residents. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality must re-evaluate and retract their permit for the Port Authority development. Filling wetlands for both of these developments will reduce water absorption capabilities and increase already persistent flooding and water contamination issues in surrounding communities.

Concern over these developments has led American Rivers to declare Turkey Creek as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2021.

In support of the Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization (EEECHO), Gulfport Section National Council of Negro Women, Turkey Creek Community Initiatives, North Gulfport Community Land Trust, American Rivers, Mississippi Sierra Club and Anthropocene Alliance, I demand an evaluation of the full suite of cumulative impacts of these projects, including health, safety and economic impacts to Turkey Creek and the Turkey Creek and Forest Heights communities. The true costs of these developments must be evaluated. Economic development must not come at the cost of human and ecological health, or environmental justice. Decision-makers must ensure that any economic development proposals in the Turkey Creek area are supported by the local community and protect the health of the community and environment. To this end, development must align with the neighborhood’s Community Plan and Watershed Plan.

Please use your regulatory authorities to retract these recent permits for development around Turkey Creek and consider the full suite of cumulative impacts on local communities and the environment.

Sincerely,

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