Posted on 09/19/2006 10:55:32 PM PDT by neverdem
Scientists have long said the only way to restore Louisiana’s vanishing wetlands is to undo the elaborate levee system that controls the Mississippi River, not with the small projects that have been tried here and there, but with a massive diversion that would send the muddy river flooding wholesale into the state’s sediment-starved marshes.
And most of them have long dismissed the idea as impractical, unaffordable and lethal to the region’s economy. Now, they are reconsidering. In fact, when a group of researchers convened last April to consider the fate of the Louisiana coast, their recommendation was unanimous: divert the river.
Far from rejecting the idea, state officials have embraced it, motivated not just by the lessons of Hurricane Katrina but also by growing fears that global climate change will bring rising seas, accelerating land loss and worse weather.
“A major diversion in the lower part of the river is something that needs to be done,” said James R. Hanchey, deputy secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. He said the state was convening a planning meeting on the idea this fall. The diversion would be well downstream of New Orleans, in the bird-foot delta at the river’s mouth. Even so, there would be tremendous engineering challenges, particularly in finding a new way for freighters to make their way into the Mississippi’s shipping channel, said Mr. Hanchey, who took his job after retiring as director of engineering and technical services for the Mississippi Valley division of the Army Corps of Engineers. But he added, “I think it’s within the realm of possibility.”
Ellis J. Clairain Jr., interim director of the Louisiana Coastal Area science and technology program for the Army Corps, called the idea “a possible alternative.”
And Virginia R. Burkett, coordinator of global-change science for the United States...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
People best realize that the Army Corps of Engineers and EPA will be involved. Anytime you get these two lunatic branches of government together think "disaster."
These two federal "F-ups" are currently engaged in a sh*t throwing contest in Michigan to get tiled drains on farmlands classified as navigable waterways under the bureaucratically defined "migratory molecule" rule. That means a ditch can be defined as a navigable waterway if a molecule of H2O is grabbed by the sun and deposited as rain in a navigable waterway.
These two agencies combined hit +10 on the moron meter.
Look up Rapanos v US for stupidity, attempted extortion, trespassing, violation of civil rights and perjury by federal agents engaged in destruction of private property. I won't hold my breath waiting for congress to investigate these two criminal entereprises and throw these people in prison.
Believe me, Louisianna doesn't want these two fascist agencies in the state.
Ya gotta love the arrogance of some. The Mississippi will move when it decides to move. Already a sizeable portion of the river goes down the Atchafalaya. Sooner or later all of it will.
This article should have been written by scapple face. You would have more luck moving the grand canyon than you would the mouth of the Mississippi. The idea of is beyond reality
It has moved before, and will again. All the levies in the world won't stop it in the end.
As a geologist, I second this notion.
The Mississippi will flow where ever it wants to some day.
So, without those levees erected so long ago, Those oil platforms in the gulf would have been unnessary because the sediment would have filled in the gulf and Louisiana would be the biggest state in the union.
"Deforestation... has resulted in a ten-fold increase in sediment from the Ohio River."
Deforestation, my ass! There are more trees than there ever were in that part of the country.
It "decided to move" long ago... lots of money has been dumped into blocking it from going where it "wants to go"...
"The Islamofascists thank you."
Oh, I admit my actions are petulant but actually, recycling does not always make economic sense. When the trash-hauling companies cannot make a profit by sending the cans over to the smelters, do you know what they do?
Dump them with the rest of the trash. Why not economical? Because there is too much supply, so price has fallen.
I do not ask anyone to follow me. So my impact on the "environment" is small. But I am trying to make a point when I do it -- that when a liberal cringes because I put a beer can in the trash, I tell him that I have 10 far higher moral priorities on my list. That usually gets us into a discussion about abortion, Terry Schiavo, etc.
And one high water year, the old river control where the Missisippi and Atchafayala rivers touch, will give way, and a whole lot more of the Missisippi will go down the Atchafayala. And that will be a real mess.
Amen
This is exactly what will happen, Man will be powerless against Mother Nature.
"conservatives do it to be frugal and conserve, while libs do it to be sanctimonious and smug."
That is so funny; I love it! Do you mind if I borrow it? It is the kind of statement that makes my liberal relatives go crazy. It is so illogical that they can't respond, so they just get mad.
It's in 1 of it's natural beds, the problem is they've been trying to keep it there while it wants to go spend a weekend (or a millennium) at one of its other places.
"Then turn everything from New Orleans south on the Mississippi into a managed wetlands, allowing for the grandfathered residents."
Lake Ponchartrain probably wouldn't be deep enough but the rest of your post sounds good to me.
Yes, I know, but the operative term here, as you know, is "1 of its natural beds". I'm not an expert on the Mississippi by any stretch of the imagination, but I have read that long before the Corps of Engineers started forcing the river to follow its current course, it would occasionally re-direct itself to flow through Lafayette or Lake Charles or somplace like that. Considering that the lower part of the La. peninsula is slowly being consumed by the Gulf of Mexico (according to a recent article), it begs the question of whether or not it is worth the time and money to maintain the existing levy system for the river AND to rebuild New Orleans.
Both of those things have romantic, sentimental and historical symbolism but, from a practicality standpoint, they don't make a lot of sense.
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