WOODVILLE &045;&045; Wilkinson County supervisors Monday agreed to support a proposed study by the Army Corps of Engineers of ways to slow erosion along the Homochitto River.

Officials in Adams, Franklin and Amite counties are also involved in the project, according to state Department of Agriculture representative Gary Steen.

Steen provided board members with a resolution recently adopted by Amite County supervisors. &uot;This is just a request for a study right now. It’s not obligating any money from the county,&uot; Steen said.

Board members voted 4-0 with Fifth District Supervisor W. G. Johnson absent to adopt the resolution &045;&045; stipulating the county owes no financial obligations to the project. In a grant-funded study initiated by the Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District, Geo-Tech Management Services used aerial photographs taken in 1957, 1984 and 2002 to evaluate conditions along the river.

Geo Tech said 3,405 acres of farm and forest lands have been lost and between $50 to $75 million in damage and lost production have occurred due to erosion.

Officials say a canal built in the 1930’s to channel the Homochitto from Lake Mary in western Wilkinson County to the Mississippi has made the Homochitto more shallow and swift.

The Corp of Engineers was involved in the 1930s channelization project.

Geo Tech estimates that 2,656 acres were lost in the four-county area along the river between 1957 and 1984. Twenty-five percent of that total was farm land. Between 1984 and 2002, another 748 acres were lost, including another 300 acres of farmland.

Geo Tech’s economic damage estimates do not include infrastructure, such as the Mississippi 33 bridge lost during a 1970’s flood. That bridge cost $8 million to replace.

In other business, the board voted 4-0 to grant a variance to Frio Exploration, LLC of Oklahoma City, Okla. to bury a two and three-quarter-inch natural gas line along county right of way on the Hiram McGraw Road.