The US Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday vetoed a flood-control project in the Mississippi Delta, likely ending a battle that dates all the way back to 1941 (AP).

The $220-million project centres around what EPA officials say would be the largest pump in the world, capable of moving some 14,000 cubic feet of water per second out of a flood zone during heavy runoff periods. But Assistant EPA Administrator Benjamin Grumbles today called the “Yazoo pumps” proposal a “dinosaur of a project … that was designed to protect agriculture more than people and homes.”

Congress authorized the project in 1941. It has never received final approval from the Army Corps of Engineers or funding to move forward, but environmentalists and other opponents, including the New York Times editorial board, have never quite managed to kill it either.

The EPA has used its authority to veto such water projects just 11 times in the past, but Grumbles says this one would save more wetlands – some 67,000 acres – than all of the other vetoes combined.

Environmentalists, who have heretofore had few good things to say about EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, praised the decision (without naming names).