St. Charles Parish has a distinction that no other parish or county or section of land in the country has – it contains the valve that can be opened to let the major waterway of our country empty some of its water to help save this land of ours from flooding.
Located right here in the parish is the Bonnet Carre’ Spillway that opens up the mighty Mississippi River into adjacent flatlands that can drain into Lake Pontchartrain, which is an opening into the Gulf of Mexico and then into the Atlantic Ocean and then into the rest of the world.
And that valve was opened Sunday to save our land from what could have possible been the worst flood in its history.
The spillway was built as such a relief valve after the great river flood of 1927.
When its gates are opened, river water goes into a 5.7-mile floodway on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the parish that leads to Lake Pontchartrain.
This allows 250,000 cubic feet of water to bypass the rest of our parish and New Orleans as it heads to the Gulf of Mexico and beyond.
The spillway was opened for the 11th time Sunday since completed in 1931. The opening this year was the earliest it has been opened in any year yet. Last opening was in May of 2011 for 43 days.
Apparently, high water in the river has not disturbed river traffic yet. But the U.S. Coast Guard has mandated some restrictions on river traffic already. Two anchors instead of one have been mandated for ships in the river in some areas and the number of barges have been limited. Also, some areas have one-way traffic requirements because of curvatures in the river.
Heavy rainfall in Midwestern states during December caused the river and its tributaries to overflow upriver in some areas. That water is now headed downstream. The river’s crest in New Orleans is expected around Jan. 21.
Though some areas upriver have suffered from high water, hopefully our area in will not and that, thankfully, could be due to the presence of the Bonnet Carre’ Spillway. It has been a good guardian for our area.
And, hopefully, it will continue to serve its purpose as the valve that can be opened to prevent high water from topping the levees along the lower Mississippi that could be a problem for us.
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