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Time to Move the Mississippi, Experts Say
The New York Times ^ | September 19, 2006 | Cornelia Dean

Posted on 09/23/2006 8:22:42 AM PDT by UpTurn

Scientists have long said the only way to restore Louisiana’s vanishing wetlands is to undo the elaborate levee system that controls the Mississippi River, not with the small projects that have been tried here and there, but with a massive diversion that would send the muddy river flooding wholesale into the state’s sediment-starved marshes.

And most of them have long dismissed the idea as impractical, unaffordable and lethal to the region’s economy. Now, they are reconsidering. In fact, when a group of researchers convened last April to consider the fate of the Louisiana coast, their recommendation was unanimous: divert the river.

Far from rejecting the idea, state officials have embraced it, motivated not just by the lessons of Hurricane Katrina but also by growing fears that global climate change will bring rising seas, accelerating land loss and worse weather.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: flooding; katrina; levees; louisiana; mississippiriver; nytreasontimes; rita; wetlands
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To: UpTurn

It would be less expensive to move New Orleans north, out of the flood plain, restore the natural course of the Mississippi (get rid if the levees) where it will then rebuild the sandy marshlands (they act as a wind and water break from Hurricane-fed ocean surges); than it would be to continue to try to "protect" New Orleans.

If you additionally consider what may become of the current, and very natural, warming climate trend, the rise of the Gulf waters and the Mississippi delta just might eventually swamp any levee system there.

Maybe it is time for some radical ideas.


21 posted on 09/23/2006 9:13:29 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: Wuli

I do like the diversion at empire idea. A couple of town would have to be sacrificed but it looks like the best solution. It seems that dredging on a occasional basis whereever the main channel go by nature would solve the Navigation problem


22 posted on 09/23/2006 9:18:58 AM PDT by catholicfreeper
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To: catholicfreeper

"I do like the diversion at empire idea."

Empire???

What am I missing?


23 posted on 09/23/2006 9:25:38 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: Wuli

Empire, Louisiana. It's a little town way down there.


24 posted on 09/23/2006 9:36:11 AM PDT by fishergirl (Choose your vices carefully, then be loyal to them.)
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To: UpTurn

Completely at odds with

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1706724/posts



Katrina, Rita Actually Helped Wetlands, Study Says


25 posted on 09/23/2006 9:52:02 AM PDT by UB355 (Slower I(t was greatTraffic Keep Right)
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To: fishergirl

Thanks. My Lousiana geography is not that good and I skipped over alot of little details in the article.


26 posted on 09/23/2006 10:00:50 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: UpTurn

Why not both?

TT


27 posted on 09/23/2006 1:54:09 PM PDT by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)
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