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Saltwater intrusion up the Mississippi River


acem

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The flow of the Mississippi River has slowed down to the point that saltwater is flowing upstream on the bottom of the channel while the freshwater flows on the top. This causes all kinds of problems for drinking water systems.

They are talking about bringing freshwater in on barges.

It looks like it could come as far upstream as the French quarter!

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/saltwater-intrusion-emergency-a-top-priority-for-army-corps-of-engineers-in-louisiana/289-d05a5c86-b1c0-4ddf-9164-8536e8c41a02

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according to the archives of a quick search of CNN, NPR, Army Corp of Engs here on the WWWhackos ( self included ) this happens historically every 8 to 12 yrs and whatta ya know..........its fitting the schedule, 1988, 2012, now 2023 well by golly we may be onto something!!!

just another distraction of crazy to talk about and freak people out with for shock value on the boob tube 

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I understand that it's not the first time it has happened.

But barging 36 million gallons of water daily is crazy to me?!?!

If this happens every so often they just need to build a pipeline from another source...

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In 20 years on USN ships we always converted sea water into drinking water.

I always liked the term "water water every where but not a drop to drink.

"

Politics beware, we should pull the plug on high maintenance areas like The Big Easy and let mother nature reclaim ownership.

 

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Some places like Aruba and Saudi Arabia use reverse osmosis to remove salt from seawater.

I just can't believe they are barging in that much water...

I bet the US government, not the city of new Orleans is footing the bill.

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21 minutes ago, oleman said:

Politics beware, we should pull the plug on high maintenance areas like The Big Easy and let mother nature reclaim ownership.

Hehe. Ya know, some wag once described New Orleans as a city built on a sponge that is below sea level. 
 

Not only is the city itself high maintenance, but huge amounts of effort are expended to keep the Mississippi River flowing through NO, but not allowing it to be flooded. If given free rein, the Mighty Miss would head down the Achafalaya basin and not be a substantial part of NO for another 1000 years. 

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13 minutes ago, cjf711 said:

In southern il we never really made up last years rain shortage,  dry again this fall.   Going to take some big rains to get anything from the watershed around here to the river.  

Back in August we had 4” of rain over the course of 24 hours or so, most of it being a good 3” at once.  Very little ran off, and in spite of that rain about 2 weeks later the creek that runs under the road by my driveway stopped flowing on about the same schedule as if it hadn’t rained.

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4 hours ago, Drysleeves said:

Cycles, baby, cycles. It all averages out. The Grand Canyon and that giant meteor crater in AZ aren't man made. Don't believe I'd have wanted to be anywhere near this planet when those things happened.

this is in wrong thread lol

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7 hours ago, oleman said:

Politics beware, we should pull the plug on high maintenance areas like The Big Easy and let mother nature reclaim ownership.

 

Missed our chance after Huricane Katrina. I said then the town should have gone then.

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I remember reading an article about New Orleans several years ago titled something like "Why New Orleans is in the worst location for a city, and why it's necessary to have it there".  I don't remember the reasons (had to do with river traffic) but I do recall thinking it made sense.

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Basis getting bad at mid south elevators. Merchandiser in greenville ms told us Thursday barges going out at 60% capacity. Dredging to start soon at ports like Rosedale MS.

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Is there a fish kill associated with this or do the fish simply move upstream? I understand it sounds like salt water is only in the lower water column but there are of course bottom feeding fish.

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5 hours ago, acem said:

I haven't heard anything about fish kill.

If it was an issue we probably would have.

Alot is the fish close to the Gulf are tolerant of brackish water.

Can they utilize the water from one of the lakes to flush out the saltwater? That's how it's done in Chicago. Don't know if that's possible for NOLA, but they sure have enough storm water pumps around the city/area. One would think they could figure out how to do something with them to help the situation??

Mike

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Have you been to south Louisiana?

It's flat as a pancake and much of the water except the Mississippi is brackish during times like this.Lake ponchatrain is right by but brackish...

Not to mention the volume of water needed is insane. They need 10 inches of run off across the Mississippi basin according to one article.

Interestingly very little rain that falls in south Louisiana goes into the Mississippi. It's mostly water from north of Louisiana.

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