U.S. Senator Roger Wicker speaks on Bonnet Carré Spillway

ACKERMAN, Miss. (WCBI) -The U.S. Senate this week approved a measure that will provide the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with resources to improve and maintain flood control projects, ports and waterways in Mississippi.

It includes a new $552,000,000 Regional Dredge Demonstration Program for the Gulf of Mexico and lower Mississippi River area.

High water levels, along with historic flood levels, this year led to the extended opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway.

U.S. Senator Roger Wicker said opening the Spillway can be economically damaging.

“If the federal government and its wisdom, if the Corps of Engineers and their wisdom, are going to keep opening that, then they really should be prepared to give economic compensation because we know when that happens it’s going to hurt the economy of south Mississippi,” said Wicker.