Officials seek to open major spillway on Mississippi River https://phys.org/news/2019-05-major-spillway-mississippi-river.htmlArmy Corps of Engineers officials in Louisiana aim to open a historic flood control structure above New Orleans on Tuesday for an unprecedented second time in one year.... Continued rains in the Midwest and Ohio Valley and floodwaters from the upper Mississippi River are heading down the Mississippi, National Weather Service hydrologist Jeffrey Graschel said. In addition, he noted, storms are expected to dump 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters) of rain in parts of Louisiana and Arkansas.
The Bonnet Carré Spillway gets opened to relieve stress on New Orleans levees when the Mississippi flows at 1.25 million cubic feet (35,400 cubic meters) per second—fast enough to fill the Empire State Building in 30 seconds.
"The risks in not operating the spillway as it is designed ... would be potentially catastrophic," corps spokesman Ricky Boyett said.... Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi, said he's concerned about the spillway opening, because it means that polluted fresh water will flow into Mississippi Sound, a nursery for dolphins and endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles.
More of those animals died in April than in any April over the past five years, he said, with 28 dolphins and 57 sea turtles found dead. Solangi said many of the dolphins had lesions on their bodies from exposure to fresh water, which also damages oyster reefs and blue crabs, on which the turtles feed, and plants that are food for animals lower on the food chain.