Corps rejects request for diversion of water

Business owners along the Atchafalaya River in the Morgan City area can breathe a little easier. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has denied a request to divert water that would have raised the Atchafalaya River’s projected crest by 6 inches.
According to a letter sent Friday from U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Michael Wehr to Gov. Bobby Jindal, the Corps of Engineers rejected a request to deviate from the normal 70-30 percent flow distribution at the Old River Control Complex in Morganza and increase flow into the Atchafalaya Basin.
Wehr is the Corps of Engineers’ Mississippi Valley Division commander.
St. Mary Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte provided the letter to The Daily Review.
At Thursday’s St. Mary Levee District commission meeting, Matte said state officials received a request from landowners near the control structure in Morganza to divert more water downriver, he said. The request was aimed at keeping an area of land dry in order to harvest a crop, he said.
If granted, that diversion could have raised the river level in Morgan City another 6 inches, bringing the crest to 7 feet.
As of this morning, the Atchafalaya River in Morgan City was projected to crest at 6.5 feet on July 20, Matte said.
Matte and other area leaders have explained to state officials that, at 7 feet, at least three floodgates in Morgan City and a couple in Berwick would probably have to be closed, which would probably affect some businesses, he said.
In the letter to Jindal, Wehr said, “Increased discharges into the Atchafalaya River could result in transferring the risk of harmful flooding to others in the Basin.”
Additionally, increasing the requested water flow would jeopardize the corps’ “ability to remain in compliance with the law,” Wehr said.
Therefore, Wehr couldn’t approve increasing the water flow downriver through the control structure, he said.
“It means we’re dealing with a little less water here, and I think that’s a good thing from our perspective,” Matte said.
Without the extra flow, Matte expects the impact of the projected 6.5-foot crest on the Atchafalaya in the Morgan City area to be “fairly minimal.” Still, businesses on the unprotected side of the floodwall may take some “precautionary measures” because the predicted crest is based on current conditions and doesn’t account for factors such as extra rainfall or higher tide, Matte said.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald@daily-review.com. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.