Photo of April 11, 2008 - day of Spillway Opening
In 13 days the Mississippi River has risen five feet at this gauge. We are almost on the marker where the Corps opened the Spillway in 2008. They seem to be balking at the idea.
The New Orleans Times Picayune on May 24, 2009 carried an article that read "Spillway opening safe, studies say" and "No lasting damage found in '08 event".
"Carlton Dufrechou, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said that the Corps is missing the boat by not moving at least some of the water through adjacent wetlands, which are starving for the nutrients in the river water." A Corps person told me the owners of the wetlands do not want that. Since when has the Corps ever considered what owners of property want?
The report further stated that there was no drop in the blue crab catch, oyster or fish catch in area waters because of the opening of the Spillway.
Areas that should be helped by the fresh river water are slowly dying and, what was once a beautiful cypress swamp, has become a graveyard of dead trees reaching to the sky.