The Realities of the Mississippi, the Missouri,the Atchafalaya, the Louisiana Coast, and New Orleans

Last week a pair of geologists, at the University of Texas, Austin, proposed diverting the Mississippi and its sediment to Breton Sound on the east and Barataria Bay to the west in order to build new deltas in each body of water.They would make the diversions about ninety miles south of New Orleans, my guess near Grand [...]

The Ratio of the Atchafalaya to the Mississippi

The New Orleans District of the Corps of Engineers has initiated a study that would change the ratio of Mississippi water and sediment that could be diverted to the Atchafalaya River, which is the only functioning distributary of the Mississippi, that is a river that carries water from the big river to the Gulf of [...]

The Black River in Missouri and Arkansas

 
What to do with the water come flood time has been an issue for the Corps of Engineers since the 19th century. Levees kept it off the fields until the levees broke, and the levees broke massively in 1927.
After the Flood of 1927, which inundated the Lower Mississippi Valley from valley wall to valley wall, [...]

More space for the Louisiana Black Bear.

 

 
“The American Black Bear lives a solitary life in forests and uncultivated deserts, and subsists on fruits and on the young shoots and roots of vegetatables. Of honey he is exceedingly fond, and, as he is a most expert climber, he scales the loftiest tress in search of it. Fish, too, he delights in, and [...]

Back to the Atchafalaya

 
You may have seen this image a few weeks ago, before I got diverted by something else. 
Then, I noted that about a third of the Mississippi is diverted to the Atchafalaya to keep the latter from taking over the former. And, I noted that that is a source of opportunity for the Louisiana Coast.
 
 
The Atchafalaya [...]

The Mississippi, the Atchafalaya, and a Pipeline to Colorado

 
I came across this interesting article from the Valley Courier in Alamosa, Colorado today:
A Gunnison, Colorado hay farmer wants to tap the Mississippi River and funnel Mississippi River water to Colorado through  a 22-inch, 1,200-mile long  pipeline from Hickman, Kentucky on the Mississippi to Colorado to alleviate the water shortage in the western U.S. Alamosa, by the way, [...]

Infrastructure–Old River, History

In 1831 Capt. Henry Shreve cut across the neck of Turnbull’s Point Bar and shortened the length of the Mississippi by several miles.
The lower part mouth of the Red River and the head of the Atchafalaya. Water flowed back and forth between the Red/Atchafalaya and the Mississippi depending on the level of the Mississippi. In [...]

Infrastructure–Old River Control

 

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Old River Control complex included the Old River Low Sill and Overbank Structures completed in 1962, the Old River Navigation Lock completed in 1963, and the Auxiliary Structure completed in 1986. Within the Old River Control project area the Corps of Engineers manages 3,000 acres in fee [...]

Ecosystem Restoration as Infrastructure–Houma Nav, Part 3

To understand the reasoning behind the Houma Navigation Canal Lock, you must first understand the ebb and flow of freshwater and saltwater in the Louisiana coastal marshes before the construction of the levees along the Mississippi, which stopped the annual influx of freshwater into the marshes. 
Before the construction of the levees, the Mississippi flooded the [...]