The Environmental Protection Agency killed a federal plan nearly seven decades-in-the-making to build the world’s largest water pump in the Mississippi River Delta.

It is the first time since 1990 that the EPA has vetoed a project proposed by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

The $220 million proposal would have moved 6 million gallons of water a minute from 67,000 acres of wetlands along the Yazoo River, mostly for the benefit of flood-prone farmers.

An EPA official told reporters Tuesday that the project, first authorized by Congress in 1941, would cause unacceptable damage to fish, wildlife and waterfowl. The EPA said it would work with the Corps to find a better project to control flooding in the region.