Elevated Houses and Multiple Lines of Defense in the Louisiana Wetlands and in the Missouri and Tennessee Wetlands

In January as we were all talking about the inauguration of a new president and his stimulus program, I wrote several times about infrastructure as stimulus. I included this graphic that comes from the Comprehensive Recommendations Supporting the Use of the Multiple Lines of Defense Strategy to Sustain Coastal Louisiana, published in August 2007. The writers’ strategy [...]

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 [...]

“No Net Loss of Wetlands” Wetlands as Infrastructure

It has been almost twenty years since President George H.W. Bush pledged “No net loss of wetlands.”
This year Louisiana will have, for the first time in a very long time, “no net loss of wetlands.” Louisiana has a surplus and much of it is going into wetland restoration, 4,000 acres restored in 2009.
This year folks [...]

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 [...]

Not Enough Sediment in Mississippi to Rebuild Louisiana Wetlands

The dream that we can make enough freshwater diversions from the Mississippi into the Barataria Basin to the west and Breton Sound to the east to reverse land loss is a fantasy.
A pair of geologists at Louisiana State University issued a report last week, noting that we have deprived the Mississippi River of the sediment [...]

Conflicting Demands: Levees and Wetlands

 
The Flood of 2008  breached several agricultural levees along the Upper Mississippi in Henderson, Hancock, and Adams Counties in Illinois. 
The farmers who till the 4-mile-wide floodplain here were wiped out for the summer. The village of Meyer, right on the Mississippi, saw its population reduced from 40 people to 10. The flood caused $80 million [...]

Barataria Preserve–The Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve

Congress authorized the formation of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in 1978 and designed the park to preserve the Louisiana’s history as well as its natural history. It is located at different sites. across southern Louisiana.
The Prairie Acadian Cultural Center at Eunice interprets the culture of the Acadians who settled in [...]

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 [...]

Straight Canals and Meandering Bayous

 
Water doesn’t run in a straight line, not even on your windshield.  
Through coarse sediment, sand and gravel it can run in a braided pattern, but through soft, fine alluvial soil it runs in a meandering pattern. 
Tim Carruthers made this aerial of a navigation canal cutting through the meandering bayous in the Louisiana marshes. I [...]

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, [...]