Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2018)

Rerouting a River

About the Author

The Old River Control Structure and its future

Dennis L. Bryant is with Bryant’s Mari-

GOVERNMENT UPDATE time Consulting, and a regular contribu- implications for river-borne commerce tor to Maritime Reporter & Engineering

News as well as online at MaritimePro- fessional.com. t: 1 352 692 5493 e: [email protected]

Prior to about 1500, the bodies of wa- a large bend to the west in the vicinity southern water? ow is now called the Time became paramount. Turnbull’s ter now called the Mississippi River and of what is now Point Breeze, Louisi- Atchafalaya River. Bend was a 20-mile detour that only the Red River (also known as the Red ana. That bend, sometimes referred to Everything was ? ne until 1831, be- moved the steamboat two miles further

River of the South) were roughly parallel as Turnbull’s Bend, connected with the cause the water basins in that region as the crow ? ies. This was unacceptable. along their southern reaches, each emp- Red River and had the effect of making shifted regularly about every 1,000 Henry Shreve, a steamboat captain tying separately into the Gulf of Mexico. the Red River basically a tributary of the years. The land and its occupants, in- and owner, inventor, and engineer, had

About 1500, the Mississippi, which has Mississippi, with only a small portion cluding humans, adjusted. The early developed technology to clear snags a long history of meandering, developed of its water? ow continuing south. That 1800s saw the rise of the steamboat era. and obstructions from the river. In 1831,

Mother Nature vs. “The Old River

Control Structure”

Eventually, nature will prevail and the main river channel at Point

Breeze will shift from the Lower Mis- sissippi to the Atchafalaya. This will have major immediate and long-term consequences for both river basins, their inhabitants, and their infrastructure ... There are billions of dollars of infrastruc- ture in the Mississippi River basin and a substantial amount in the

Atchafalaya River basin ...

The U.S. petrochemical and grain exporting businesses will be devastated.

Image: GOOGLE MAPS 10 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • JUNE 2018

MR #6 (10-17).indd 10 MR #6 (10-17).indd 10 6/6/2018 9:24:01 AM6/6/2018 9:24:01 AM