The Morganza spillway will open this Sunday, for only the third time in its history, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced today.
"Mississippi River Commission President and United States Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division Commander Maj. Gen. Richard Kaiser has approved the request to operate the Morganza Control Structure and Floodway," the corps announced in a statement. "If forecasted conditions remain unchanged, the operation will begin on June 2, 2019."
A few dozen miles upriver from Baton Rouge, in Point Coupee Parish, the floodway spills Mississippi River floodwater into the Atchafalaya River basin. It was built in 1954 to prevent Mississippi River floods from potentially overtopping the nearby Old River Control Structure.
The ORCS maintains a 70/30 percent split in water flow between the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya, and keeps the Mississippi in its current channel. Without it, a flood could divert the main channel of the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya, with disastrous economic consequences for industries located down river on the Mississippi, as well as U.S. agriculture that depends on the Mississippi to ship its products around the world.
"The current flood fight is historic and unprecedented," the Corps remarked. "Today marks the 214 day of the flood fight it is expected to surpass the 1973 event (225 days) as the longest flood fight. This flood is also the first time the Bonnet Carre’ Spillway has opened in back-to-back years as well as the first time it has been operated twice during the same calendar year."
The last time the Army Corps of Engineers operated the Morganza Floodway was in 2011. Prior to that, the 1973 event was the only time it had ever been used.