The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is making preparations to construct an underwater sill across the bed of the Mississippi River. This is to stop further salt water intrusion upriver, which could impact the ecosystem and drinking water for communities along the Mississippi. Ricky Boyett, Chief of Public Affairs for the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans Division, spoke to WWL’s Tommy Tucker about why there’s a need for construction of a saltwater wedge in the river.
According to Boyett, drought is one of the biggest factors behind the need for a sill being built. “The rain that we get in our area really doesn’t have much of an impact. We would need to see about 10-12 inches of rain in the Ohio valley to really make changes to the kinds of flows we’re predicting,” Boyett emphasized. Because that rainfall isn’t occurring, saltwater is more able to creep deeper into the Mississippi River. “The bottom of the Mississippi River is up to 190 ft. below sea level. So, it has that avenue that the Gulf naturally wants to fill in,” he went on to explain. The hope from engineers is that this sill will be able to stave off saltwater intrusion.
According to Boyett, the Ohio River Valley is the primary feeder of the Mississippi River and with the Midwest caught up in a continuing drought, populations who rely on the Mississippi River are seeing the trickle-down impacts of those weather patterns up north. “The Ohio River gives us about 2/3 of our water down here in Louisiana, so the drought is the biggest factor,” Boyett went on to explain.