For the third year in a row, Louisiana is constructing an underwater levee in the Mississippi River to slow an influx of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico. Brackish water is creeping up the river, which supplies drinking water for communities including New Orleans.
FILE - In this aerial photo a tugboat pushing barges navigates around sandbars amid low water levels on the Mississippi River in Livingston Parish, La., Sept. 14, 2023. BATON ROUGE, La. — An influx of salt water in the Mississippi River , which feeds southeastern Louisiana ’s drinking water supplies, is once again creeping up the waterway.in recent years, as the mighty flow of the Mississippi River has ebbed under dry conditions.
On Monday, the corps of engineers began building a sill across the river bed in Myrtle Grove, about 30 miles south of New Orleans. The sill is meant to slow or halt salt water, which flows along the bottom of the river because it’s more dense than fresh water. Building the sill with river sand is estimated to be completed by October.
Ricky Boyett, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the New Orleans district, said he is hopeful the sill will be enough. But, he added, the main factor determining the salt water’s progression is precipitation further up river, particularly in the Ohio Valley.Many communities in south Louisiana rely on the Mississippi’s fresh water, having built their water intake treatment facilities right along the river.
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Brackish water creeping up the Mississippi River may threaten Louisiana's drinking supplyFor the third year in a row, Louisiana is constructing an underwater levee in the Mississippi River to slow an influx of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico.
Read more »
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