Mississippi River Sediment Diversions & Louisiana

Overview — Sediment Diversions

The impacts of coastal land loss threaten Louisiana’s economy, commerce, infrastructure, and culture. Furthermore, the collapse of coastal Louisiana would negatively impact the entire country – we provide protection for infrastructure that supplies 90% of the nation’s outer continental oil and gas, 20% of the nation’s annual waterborne commerce, 26% (by weight) of the continental U.S. commercial fisheries landings, and winter habitat for five million migratory waterfowl.

The Barataria and Breton Basins are two areas that have experienced significant land loss due to sediment deprivation, hydrologic alteration, subsidence, sea level rise, and salt water intrusion. Since the Mississippi River was leveed in the 1930s, the Barataria and Breton Basins and Mississippi River Delta have lost approximately 700 square miles (or 447,000 acres) of land, representing one of the highest land loss rates in the world.

The 2012 Coastal Master Plan called for eight sediment diversions along the Mississippi River. Over the past several years, CPRA has conducted in-depth analyses on the Lower Breton 50,000 cfs), Lower Barataria (50,000 cfs), Mid-Breton (35,000 cfs), and Mid-Barataria (50,000 cfs) diversion projects in order to determine which projects should be prioritized for engineering and design and construction. Each project was modeled to […]

Full article: Mississippi River Sediment Diversions