The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opens the Bonnet Carre spillway today. It comes barely eleven months after the last opening.
The corps will open about 30 of the spillways 350 flood bays, with more to come.
"Our projections right now show that the spillway will be in operation for at least a month, with a max opening of about 200 bays," said Col. Mike Clancy with the Corps of Engineers' New Orleans District. "That is all subject to changed based on the weather, based on the rainfall throughout the entire Mississippi Valley.
Col. Clancy says while the spillway is open, they'll be monitoring water quality in the lake, and Mississippi officials will be checking the water in Mississippi Sound, to monitor the environmental impact of all that fresh water flowing into brackish Lake Pontchartrain. How much water are we talking?
"About a minute to fill the Superdome up, at one and a quarter million cubic feet per second," said Col. Clancy, although that's when the spillway is 100 percent open. The plan right now is to open about 57 percent of it.
