Miss. River Water Level Questions

Lucky for you its falling pretty good right now.

The corps has flow rate levels that trigger openings of the lock system in stages. Those other issues you mentioned earlier don’t factor into it on the surface (but are discussed at a higher leVel than you or I). With all that being said I was in Concordia this past week and I can tell you the length of time that the river has stayed well above flood stage for the past 4-5 years is really taking a toll on the levee system. There are levee washouts in numerous places including one near the Morganza spillway. Thankfully the levee is really wide in that location. I know they are really concerned about uplift on the land side of the levees as well. The Corps is going to have its work cut out for it when the water goes down to get all the repairs in before next years high water.

The system is designed to protect the large cities. They don’t open anything unless there’s a downriver threat to a large city. As soon as the threat passes, due to water levels decreasing, they close up the structure.

The entire System Is one of the best return on investments the government has ever designed. It’s certainly been tested in recent years, but it’ still works even after all these years.

US COE has no control over how much water comes down the Mississippi.

The levees they built to protect populated areas from flooding keep the river in its channel and allow higher water level. If there were no levees the river would be spilled over its natural banks and covering half of southern LA right now. The levees and rising river bed elevation do allow the river height to build up quite high, as designed.

I don’t think they are doing it on purpose they have guidelines to follow. I was told the river is so silted in that the flow rate would never be reached to trigger the opening of some of the spillways. The river is staying high due to it not being dredged like it use to be. I was told that in 2008 Obama cut funding for dredging the river. They said there use to be three dredge boats in the river in New Orleans and now there’s just one, not sure if that is true. They are supposed to start a dredging project from the mouth to Baton Rouge. Here’s a few links about it. Dredging Today and NOLA.com

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Any logical reasoning to keep it this high?

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Uh, because the river has flooded nearly every year for thousands of years and it's just part of the water cycle.

Article has some sensationalized material but never knew it was Einstein's son who was responsible for leading the design charge up at Morganza.

Albert Einstein's Son Tames the Mississippi