The Corps of Engineers says they’re delaying the opening of the Morganza Spillway to Sunday, the second time the structure’s much talked about opening has been pushed back.
Corps spokesperson Ricky Boyett says it’s due to recent reports that the river’s high-water mark will be arriving three days later than previously thought.
“If we were to continue on and open the spillway this Thursday, what we would end up doing is put three days of water into the spillway that we did not have to do.”
The spillway was originally scheduled to open June 2nd.
Just outside the State Capitol building you can see the water pushing up close to the top of the levee system. Boyett says the river level in Baton Rouge has been up and down but is projected to stay within safe levels through the end of the week.
“Over the last weekend, we saw a little bit of a fall, and then we’re going to get another rise.”
Boyett says their current projections still indicate the river is set to rise to unsafe levels, so expect the Morganza to open at some point even with the delays, but they won’t open the structure if it’s not absolutely necessary.
“We do as the forecast says, and if it does come in that the forecast indicates that we wouldn’t risk over-topping the structure, then we wouldn’t open.”
