NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Drought upriver has left the Mississippi River so low and gradual that salt water is creeping farther than standard alongside the ground towards New Orleans and dangerous ingesting water, the Military Corps of Engineers stated Wednesday.
The Corps plans an underwater levee to dam the wedge of heavier salt water earlier than it will probably get into two of the 4 water remedy vegetation in Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans, officers stated in a information convention posted on YouTube.
The construction, known as a sill, might be as tall as 45 toes (13.7 meters), which might carry its best top sufficient to intervene with the extra-large ships the river was once just lately dredged to house, stated Heath Jones, the New Orleans Corps place of work’s emergency control director.
The Corps stated deepening the river additionally shall we the once a year saltwater intrusion develop larger and last more, The Instances-Picayune/The New Orleans Recommend reported.
Salt already within the river’s lowest stretch may just impact the style, odor and colour of ingesting water however isn’t a basic well being risk, the Plaquemines Parish executive stated in an advisory Wednesday. Sodium ranges are above the ones really useful for ingesting water for other folks on very low-sodium diets, so other folks on such diets or on dialysis will have to take a look at with their medical doctors, it stated.