He's sortof correct. Davis pond currently is the only diversion into upper Barataria. It's design peak discharge is only 10k cfs whereas during a normal spring the river is at 800k to 1.2 million cfs flow. So in the big picture, Davis pond is marginal at best; plus it was never intended to convey sediment, only freshwater.

To get legitimate land building and flushing power needed, you need either several 50k cfs or greater diversions or a few 100k or greater diversions. Davis pond could be enlarged, and you could make structures at Port Sulphur, Empire, etc. etc. to accomplish this, however you then would have less water in the river, more siltation and a bunch of pissed off politically connected river pilots so it probably will never happen and our coastline will continue to degrade.

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Posted by Combat Barney

Member since Jun 2009

198 posts

Posted on 6/30/10 at 9:41 pm to Combat Barney

Might I also add that the corps has been studying a diversion near port sulphur for almost ten years now and plans to study it for twenty more years before making a recommendation even though congress already has allocated construction money... No exaggeration there.

Should we somehow secure money for multiple diversions, they would be studied for decades while everything goes to shite.

<<rant over>>

This post was edited on 6/30/10 at 9:44 pm

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Posted by omegaman66

greenwell springs

Member since Oct 2007

27178 posts

Posted on 6/30/10 at 10:33 pm to Combat Barney

quote:
in the river, more siltation and a bunch of pissed off politically connected river pilots so it probably will never happen and our coastline will continue to degrade.

And therein lies the problem. More siltation. If the world was run by people that gave a crap about Louisiana that would be a GREAT THING. If this was the everglades in Florida they would be diverting as much water as they could so that they could get bot the benefit of the water in the marsh as well as all the sediment from the dredging to help with saving the marsh.

It is freaking sad. They are closing the West Bay Diversion Project because they claim it is causing to much sediment to drop out of the River at pilot town. Money to save the coast is being spent on dredging that part of the river.

They lie and say it was not working. Their data shows that west bay floor for the first time in decades actually recieved more sediment than was lost by subsidence. Which means it was working!!!

It takes a long time for project this big to work a perfect example is Wax Lake Outlet. Once the land finally starts appearing it progresses more rapidly each year.

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Posted by Combat Barney

Member since Jun 2009

198 posts

Posted on 6/30/10 at 11:53 pm to omegaman66

If humans were incapable of restoring Louisiana because we lacked the knowledge and engineering skill, that would probably be easier for me to handle. But we know how to do it, the policy makers and politicos are just fricking stupid.

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Posted by Putty