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 [...]

Pallid Sturgeon, the Shovelnose Sturgeon, and Side Channels

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may ban commercial fishing of all sturgeon, the endangered pallid sturgeon and the common shovelnose sturgeon. Fish and Wildlife put the pallid Sturgeon on the endangered list in 1990.
Those of us who love caviar have driven the harvest of shovelnose sturgeon from 6,600 pounds in 1995 to 23,000 pounds [...]

Casino at Columbia Bottoms at the Confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri

In 1890 the Confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers was a maze of islands and sloughs, many of which have become attached to the mainland.
On Monday the St. Louis County Planning Commission approved, unanimously, the rezoning of a 377-acre site in Spanish Lake, Missouri near the end of the I-270 bridge over the Mississippi. [...]

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 [...]