History of Engineering Old River: Confluence of the Red, Atchafalaya, and Mississippi Rivers

hellooooo Tom Sawyerrrrrr!!!!!!!!!

HawkTheSlayer wrote:

jirqoadai wrote:big gigantic clusterfuck. upended any balace of nature that mightve been left. Blioxi Marsh Lands Company is suing the shit out of them for ruining their land. betcha dollars to do nuts theres a hundred other ones out there too.

Honestly, the levees around the Atchafalaya Basin and along the Mississippi river have done more harm to nature than good. All in the name of protecting industry, business, metropolitan areas, and farmers.

One day one of these structures will fail, and you'll see a shit show that will make Hurricane Ida look like a 12volt fan.

That's my first thought, too.

But had nature been allowed to take its course, commercial navigation as it is now, would be gone. The Mississippi runs through flat, soft territory, which apparently has had a lot of geological shifting - and moving of the riverbed. N'Orleans might have been cut off a long time ago...which today we would say, what a blessing. But that's because of cultural issues (Great Society, etc). It would have reverted to a sleepy town...maybe rail shipment would have taken the place of barge traffic, maybe not.

And had Shreve not started the great project...might not someone else, twenty years later? Sometimes history in inevitable.

why not push the mippippissi through lakes maurepas and pontchartrain. then what " overflow " can continue to run through nrlns.

jirqoadai wrote:why not push the mippippissi through lakes maurepas and pontchartrain. then what " overflow " can continue to run through nrlns.

That's what they do with the Bonne Carre Spillway. Divert the water into the lake a few miles above NOLA.  They open that Spillway on a more regular basis.
The Shrimpers and crabbers don't like the heavy influx of fresh water into the brackish and salt water estuaries. It has a negative impact. Especially on the oysters.

Hay-ell...just leave it be. Beef up the levees and existing control structures.

Focus commercial shipments on RAIL. Have an intermodal dock upstream; but at this point, it's pointless to try and tame the Mississippi delta. Why shovel manure against the tide? Anything done, is gonna be undone and have 10x the consequences. So just let nature have it.

Rail shipment is almost as cost efficient, and with a lot less dependence on geological stability.

rail shipment cant be almost as cost effective, or TenTom wouldve never been built.