I’m writing about the navigation lock in the Atchafalaya River. In 1977, Sidney A. Murray Jr., the mayor of Vidalia, questioned the use of hydroelectric power to help reduce rapidly escalating electricity rates. It ended up with the construction of the world’s largest prefabricated power plant structure. Construction of the 192-megawatt, $520-million power plant began in 1985. Earlier plans allowed the foundation and associated works to be built in the dry at the actual project site, just upriver of the Old River Control complex, at the same time the power plant itself was constructed at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans. The 12 story, 25,000-ton structure was towed 208 miles up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. Named the “Merrimac,”
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Several boat launches and a primitive camping area, located near the Old River Lock, are open year-round and are provided to the public free of charge. The highest use of these areas occurs during the fall and winter when hunting season is open on the adjacent Three Rivers State Wildlife Management Area. White-tailed deer, gray and fox squirrels, feral hogs, and wild turkey are the most popular wildlife that are hunted in the area. Recreational and commercial fishing is equally as popular because of the easy bank and boat access to the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. The economic impact of commercial fisheries in the waters around the Old River Control Complex is significant to the area. The constant availability of bait fish attracts fishermen who use large dip nets to catch shad that are sold for crawfish and crab bait throughout south Louisiana. Commercial hoop net and trotline fishermen catch large numbers of catfish, buffalo, carp, and gar fish that are sold at the fish market Additional structures are used for major overbank floods. Near this juncture, …show more content…
A weir was installed in 1988, intended to direct more discharge down the lower Atchafalaya River because it had been aggrading. It was removed in 1994 because of in-creased stages at Morgan City by ~0.3 m (1 ft) (Powell, 1996; Robert set al., 1997). Both channels are influenced by tides and occasional storm surges from tropical and frontal events, and these effects de-crease upstream. Deltas have been growing in the relatively shallow Atchafalaya Bay and initially emerged after a large river flood in 1973. The Atchafalaya is the most original basins because it has a growing system with very stable wetlands. It is also the biggest river swamp in North America but has lost about 3,760 acres between 1932 and 1990. The loss of the wetlands is primarily due to erosion, human activities, and natural conversion. Many human activities, such as oil and gas pipelines, have interrupted the movement of flow and sediment within the wetlands that it is another factor in the loss of acres for the Atchafalaya. But there is not a total loss in this, the Atchafalaya have also positive outlooks on things. The basin consists of more fish compared to any other
Several boat launches and a primitive camping area, located near the Old River Lock, are open year-round and are provided to the public free of charge. The highest use of these areas occurs during the fall and winter when hunting season is open on the adjacent Three Rivers State Wildlife Management Area. White-tailed deer, gray and fox squirrels, feral hogs, and wild turkey are the most popular wildlife that are hunted in the area. Recreational and commercial fishing is equally as popular because of the easy bank and boat access to the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. The economic impact of commercial fisheries in the waters around the Old River Control Complex is significant to the area. The constant availability of bait fish attracts fishermen who use large dip nets to catch shad that are sold for crawfish and crab bait throughout south Louisiana. Commercial hoop net and trotline fishermen catch large numbers of catfish, buffalo, carp, and gar fish that are sold at the fish market Additional structures are used for major overbank floods. Near this juncture, …show more content…
A weir was installed in 1988, intended to direct more discharge down the lower Atchafalaya River because it had been aggrading. It was removed in 1994 because of in-creased stages at Morgan City by ~0.3 m (1 ft) (Powell, 1996; Robert set al., 1997). Both channels are influenced by tides and occasional storm surges from tropical and frontal events, and these effects de-crease upstream. Deltas have been growing in the relatively shallow Atchafalaya Bay and initially emerged after a large river flood in 1973. The Atchafalaya is the most original basins because it has a growing system with very stable wetlands. It is also the biggest river swamp in North America but has lost about 3,760 acres between 1932 and 1990. The loss of the wetlands is primarily due to erosion, human activities, and natural conversion. Many human activities, such as oil and gas pipelines, have interrupted the movement of flow and sediment within the wetlands that it is another factor in the loss of acres for the Atchafalaya. But there is not a total loss in this, the Atchafalaya have also positive outlooks on things. The basin consists of more fish compared to any other