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Wetland Woes
Steps that people have taken to control the flow of the Mississippi
River over the past 100 years may have helped with flooding,
but have also wreaked havoc on the coastal wetlands of Louisiana.
Without the steady supply of fresh water that used to come from
seasonal flooding, the wetlands’ salinity levels have
risen, forcing Louisiana’s crabbing, shrimping and fishing
operations — the source of one-quarter of the seafood
consumed in America — into smaller and smaller areas.
Wetland loss has also contributed to erosion, making certain
land masses in the region some of the fastest-eroding areas
in the world.
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A Radical Solution
To improve the salinity levels in Louisiana’s wetlands,
plans are now in the works to test the effects of channeling
fresh water from the Mississippi River into a 9,300-acre bayou
in the Davis Pond region. When complete, the project will be
able to turn the flow of water into the bayou on and off at
will, at rates up to 10,650 cubic feet per second. The project
has the potential to solve a century’s worth of water
flow issues over a very short time frame. To work right, planners
will have to ensure that just the right amount of fresh water
gets added.
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Checks-and-Balances
In order to make sure that the water diversion project strikes
a proper balance for the ecosystem without overdoing things,
the Jefferson Parish EMPACT Project is collecting real-time
data on algal blooms, chlorophyll levels, water quality, the
weather and more. Through a series of checks-and-balances on
various scientists’ findings, the project hopes to make
the fresh water diversion as positive a program as possible.
It also helps to put scientific data into the hands of local
citizens so that they can begin judging the results of the diversion
for themselves as it progresses, and thus give informed input
into it before it’s too late to make changes.
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More information…
Jefferson
Parish EMPACT Program
Get access to the EMPACT program's real-time satellite data,
and learn more about what they hope to accomplish from this
project.
Davis
Pond Freshwater Diversion Structure
Discover the background and parameters of the freshwater diversion
project, and where things stand at the moment.
EMPACT
Technology Transfer
Get you hands on "The Jefferson Parish - EMPACT Project Technology
Transfer Handbook" and other great resources.
Project
Photo Gallery
Take a closer look at the people and technologies working
to make this project a success.
Estuary
Salinity as an Ecological Clock
Learn the basics about the natural ebbs and flows of salt
in water, and why they matter.
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The videos on this site are part of an hour long
video produced by the Environmental Fund for Pennsylvania/GreenWorks
for the Environmental Protection Agency's EMPACT Program. To
get a copy of the entire video, contact GreenTreks at talktous@greentreks.org.
Learn more about our Outreach Efforts for this production. Email
us at talktous@greentreks.org. |
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