People throughout the United States face erosion every day. In addition to the obvious loss of productive topsoil, erosion causes poor water quality, sedimentation, loss of aquatic and terrestrial habitat, and increased frequency and duration of flood flows.

Nowhere in the United States have the consequences of erosion shown themselves more prevalently than in the Lower Mississippi Valley, specifically, the foothills region of the Upper Yazoo River Basin. Erosion rates in this area are nearly twice the national average.

The early European settlers rapidly developed the highly productive and fertile soils within the Yazoo Basin, with little or no attention to conservation practices. Soon, the main channels were plugged with sediments, while tributary channel banks and bottoms degraded. Upland gullies formed and accelerated erosional processes.

To combat the ever increasing problems, drainage districts were formed from 1880 to 1940. The districts attempted to implement erosion control structures, but since the structures usually focused on site specific problems, the district projects often did little to alleviate system-wide problems and sometimes aggravated on-going erosion. After 1940, federal agencies, primarily the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), have attempted to coordinate their various activities to control erosion, reclaim land, improve drainage, and reduce flood damages caused by erosion and sedimentation.

In 1984, the U. S. Congress authorized the Demonstration Erosion Control (DEC) Project. The SCS and Corps were directed to work together to control the erosion, sedimentation, and flooding in the foothills region of the Yazoo River Basin.