Thread: Basin

Originally Posted by jig rig

HTH
Louisiana River Control

JR,

Great article. A lot of people on my end all say that ever since they constructed the hydro-electric plant is when the basin started to decline in fish and crawfish construction. There are hardly any commercial crawfishermen around my area that fish there anymore. We don't get the normal yearly rise we used to get. The last time we got to 20' at BLR was 2011(a rarity). We wore the sacs out that year. If they give us water we have fish. I told a lot of people they would mess up the water in the basin this year by dropping it to fast; by that I mean closing to many gates at one time. I'm old enough to remember the flood of '73. I ran a few traps in the basin that year. The water was so high you had to launch off of the levee. The current was so strong in the G.A., you had to point your boat northwestly just to hit a mark on the opposite bank. If the Old River structure would have failed the Mississippi River would now occupy the Atchafalaya. Would that be a good thing? Depends who you talk to. There are those that are supposed to be "in the know" that say you can't rebuild the coast with silt from the river. I say BS. All one needs as an example is the outlet of the Calumet Cut. Paces where we hunted ducks 30 or 35 years ago in open marsh have trees growing there now. The CORP has strangled the Miss. River so much it is like a trapped wild hog now. One day, and it will happen, the river will go where nature intends to take it. When that happens the people in the low lying areas will be fleeing like rats out of a hole. Just recently in 2011 the levee had started to "slide" near my house. They had to quickly dump limestone in places to beef it up. Not at 27'(flood stage) but at 20'! If we have a dry summer the levee begins to crack and when the high water hits it it becomes like "cush cush"; thereby losing it's strength. One reason this happens in my opinion, is the CORP waits to long to open the gates to meter the flow of the MR. If they would gradually open the gates prematurely, it would give time for the levees to seal and be more able to take the stress of the high water on the levee system. But hey, what does an old rice farmer know(that's been directing water all his life)LOL. In my opinion they used the water flow as an economic tool to their advantage in recent years. One day that will all change. Those academics, and I use the term lightly, will be humbled by Mother Nature. The Atch. river will be the "new" Miss. River. Then Mother Nature will start "fixing" all the damage done to the coast by "de CORPS". I hope I'm still around to see it(though my house and belongings will be under water).