re: This is Huge For Our Coastal Restoration

quote:

---

The Atchafalaya is already building land at the delta, and that region is probably the only region in the state that is not subsiding. The entire Mississippi River Basin below Baton Rouge is slowly subsiding. Maurepas is becoming a brackish lake, and the swamp is slowly dying. The Atchafalaya isn't really experiencing any of those problems.

---

I am a full proponent of getting the hell on with these restoration projects but people need to understand that the Atchafalaya carries much more sediment than the Mississippi does because of the soil between it's beginning and the Gulf. The biggest thing we need to address is the sediment load and hydroelectric dams on the Missouri River are the biggest culprit in starving the River of silt. We need to get that dirt back in the water, break holes, and divert and we need to start now.

quote:

---

This is allowing the sediment to accumulate and spread out as nature originally intended.

---

Unfortunately, the problem isn't just the Mississippi Levee, it is also damning of the tributaries well upstream that has reduced the sediment load.

edit: Well I see someone already covered that.