River diversions won’t affect the Coast like the Bonnet Carré, Louisiana reps say
Planned diversions of the Mississippi River into coastal waterways will not damage the Mississippi Sound ecosystem like the Bonnet Carré Spillway has, Louisiana officials told a crowd of about 75 on Wednesday in Long Beach.
“We value our Coast too much to lose it and we are fighting like hell to save it,” Chip Kline, chairman of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CRPA), told the crowd. The state Department of Marine Resources sponsored the afternoon forum hosted by the Gulf Coast Business Council at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Park campus.
Kline said Mississippi residents are hearing “inaccurate and misleading information” about the diversions. Louisiana is planning two diversions of the Mississippi River designed to deposit sediment on the state’s southern shores to curb massive land loss.
Coast residents fear more river water could dilute salinity levels in the Mississippi Sound, killing oysters and driving other aquatic life.
South Louisiana residents opposed to the diversions, particularly fishermen, have sounded alarms in public forums on the Mississippi Coast and in the Sun Herald.
Brad Barth, CRPA program manager for sediment diversions, said he wanted to clear up several misconceptions:
▪ The diversion closest to Mississippi, the mid-Breton diversion, is further from the Sound than the Bonnet Carré Spillway.
▪ The maximum flow rate of the diversion would be 75,000 cubic feet per second, compared to 250,000 cfs for the Bonnet Carré.
▪ The Bonnet Carré is operated for flood control, while the diversions would be designed to build land.
Barth said the mid-Breton diversion is years away because of lengthy permitting requirements. He estimated that a final decision from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would come around 2024.
He also emphasized that the permitting process will provide ample opportunities for public comment.
Barth said the diversion, if approved, would not begin operating until 2028 or 2029.
Moby Solangi, executive director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, pointed out to applause that the Mississippi and mid-Breton sounds are connected. He also said the biggest dolphin population in the United States is in these waterways.
He is concerned that Congress granted a waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act, meaning dolphins could be killed or harmed for diversions. Waivers from the act are not unusual, but Solangi said this one was because no study preceded the decision to grant them.
Louisiana officials point out that diversion impacts on dolphins must still be studied as part of the permitting process.
Dolphins died in record numbers this year after the spillway opened. Many had skin lesions that can occur when salinity levels are low.
Solangi also pointed out the Mississippi River, which drains 41% of the United States, is far more polluted than it was 100 years ago and could further degrade coastal waterways.
This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 7:43 AM.
