The US Army Corps of Engineers is planning to barge 36 million gallons of freshwater daily into the lower Mississippi River near New Orleans as saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico continues to threaten drinking water supply, officials said Friday.
The move comes as water levels are plummeting for the second consecutive year after this summer’s blistering heat and low rainfall triggered extreme drought over parts of the central US.
As water levels drop, the threat of saltwater intrusion grows in Louisiana as ocean water pushes north into drinking water systems, unimpeded by the Mississippi’s normally mighty flow rate.
The Mississippi River is forecast to reach “historic lows over the next several weeks,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said during a Friday news conference.
We’re just going to keep doing this kind of shit till it all falls apart aren’t we?
If only people would stop voting for cartoonish villains in the gop and actually vote for people who give a shit.
It is not just the GOP in the USA. Every nation has the same issue, most people only care about themselves.
My own parents have basically said they do not give a shit what happens after they die as it will not affect them.
That is the attitude of so many people in the world.
Please let it all fall apart after I am gone.
Eh. Democrats don’t really care either.
I never said a party name. I said vote for people that care.
Yep. We will keep applying band-aids to the gaping chest wound because sowing up the hole in the artery has been deemed bad for the economy.
Dang we just pulled an insurance company on ourselves
It goes a little bit deeper than that.
Yeah, we would progress slower. But that’s not the real issue. The real issue is competing with other nations. If the US stops using fossil fuels but China keeps using them, then the US just handicapped itself and China is going to progress faster because of it.
I’m not saying it should be this way, just that it is. And it’s not just ‘the economy.’ It’s the military. Like it or not, nations are at war even when they’re not.
Now that really sounds sustainable in the long term…
Are you talking about New Orleans in general?
I wasn’t…but now that you mention it, yes.
So many countries have really successful desalination projects powered by solar farms, New Orleans could have all it’s water needs met if they invested in infrastructure rather than constant disaster mitigation.
New Orleans and Louisiana could stop this by making the chemical plants use river water. Pull as much as you need, filter it if you need, and that’s that. Right now they pull from the aquifers because they don’t have to filter it.
Or corruption and graft.
New Orleans…invest in infrastructure
Hahahahaggh! Whew. Good one.
I’m flashing back to some story on 60 Minutes some time last century about the dykes in the Netherlands. The intervieer was discussing the magnitude of the system, and was asking if such an approach would work for New Orleans. The senior manager-ish person being asked, said something along the lines of:
This is something that certainly be accomplished from an engineering standpoint; the main requirement is the political will to do so.
That stuck with me.
A show about engineering to solve water problems in Italy were both inspiring and heartbreaking to me ,being here in the usa. We really are so far behind ,and more than a little scrubby.
Capitalism and Reaganomics, Citizens United , was the beginning of our decline. It’s all been fast food culture since. I hate not feeling proud of where I live.
But solar farms are communism! /s
There is a similar section in “The Heat Will Kill You First” by Jeff Goodell. This will only happen more and more each year.
Bye bye Big Easy…
