The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may open the Bonnet Carre Spillway in St. Charles Parish on Wednesday to relieve pressure on the levees along the lower Mississippi River. New Orleans district Corps Spokesperson Ricky Boyett says high water levels have arrived earlier than expected because of rainfall rolling down from the Midwest…
“The upper Mississippi Valley as well as the Ohio Valley, both rivers ultimately converged and had to pass through south Louisiana.”
Boyett says when gates are opened on the Bonnet Carre spillway water from the Mississippi River is diverted into Lake Ponchartrain at 250,000 feet per second…
“We always have to consider what it does to the lake when we put that much fresh water into it. In that speaking, we do undertake environmental monitoring plans so that we can fully understand what doing this is contributing.”
If the spillway is opened, it would be the third time in four years despite only being activated 13 times since 1931. Boyett says the Corps of Engineers will investigate why we are seeing high Mississippi River levels more often…
“If it is just weather and it is just the cyclical pattern that we are going through, or if there is a change in the river that we have to consider.”
If river levels reach 15 feet the Corps of Engineers will restrict activity on or around levees.
