The Woes of Lake Pontchartrain

I think I've decided that human beings are trying to kill us. All because of some mosquitos and flooding in the midwest over those several weeks. Yes, that's right. Everything in life is a cycle, right? Everyone and everything has a direct influence and impact on something else. I am fulling capable of admitting that I am an environmentalist liberal. I always have been a liberal, but with my current and long-standing fascination with the very idea that the world could have clean drinking water and that pollution is bad (the hell you say!), the environmentalist side of me has come out full strong. So here's the deal:

The Lake Ponchartrain is that huge bastard of a lake that sits on the north side of New Orleans. It's an amazing body of water. It is the second largest salt-water lake in the US, next to Great Salt Lake. The lake water is actually brackish (a mixture of salt and fresh water). The estuary of the lake is as delicate as the balance of salt and freshwater. There are species living in the lake that are only known to live in this lake. Nowhere else on the planet. Species that are vital to the survival of other species. For more information on the Lake and its history, check this page out. It's a great source. http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2002/of02-206/intro/preface.html

Part of the drainage basin for the Pontchartrain is the Pearl River. Again, a vital part of wetlands between the Gulf of Mexico and Jackson, MS. And again, there are species on this planet that are only found in the Pearl River. The problems with the Pearl are huge. It is a tributary to both the Gulf and to the Miss. River. North of Jackson, there is a problem with the mercury levels in the water. Years ago, they tried to dam the Pearl, for some ungodly reason, and realized it didn't work the way the wanted. The Pearl never did quite recover from that fiasco.

So the problems now are this: There is a man in Jackson, John McGowan, who wants to dam the Pearl around Jackson because he wants to build small lakes and land to boost Jackson's economy. But he's trying to sell the idea to locals based on flooding. He says that Jackson is in danger of the Pearl flooding and wiping out whole sections of the city. I'm sorry, John, but any city sitting next to a river is in danger of the same thing. New Orleans isn't trying to dam the Miss. River. Then again....wait...I'll get to that later. Oh, he also says that something needs to be done about that river because of the mosquito problems and it smells bad. ::blinks:: Really?

Yes, the Pearl did flood Jackson once. It was very destructive to large parts of the city. I must concede that. However...that flood was in 1979. Yes, that's right, 30 years ago. This man is willing to kill off what little bit of untouched wetlands there are in the Gulf Region because he's a developer that thinks his wallet is just a shy thin. He is an asshole.

Problems with the Lake: New Orleans levees have a little sticker applied to them somewhere saying that they can only withstand a flow of the Miss River of 1.25 million cubic feet per second. Because of the flooding in the midwest, the Miss. was flowing at a rate of 1.26 million cfs. So the state instituted their grand and glorious plan of opening a flood control measure that wasn't well thought out (but built anyway) in 1927. The Bonnet Carre Spillway diverts water from the Miss River into the Lake Pontchartrain on the western side of New Orleans to reduce stress on the levees surrounding the city.

In theory, it's a fantastic idea. In hindsight, they should have opened it on the other side of the Miss. That fresh water with high sediment, high nutrients and decently high toxins (nothing we can do about that last part just yet) should have been opened up into the wetlands. They are diminishing at a rate that is rapid and alarming. They are a great source of protection for south Louisiana against hurricanes. All of that sediment and clay could have done something to reduce the strain on the land lost in the area. But no, it flows into the delicate and (formerly) clean Lake.

Well I drove across the lake last week and saw the amount of algae that was floating in the water and realized that the effects of the spillway being open for only about 2 weeks were already starting to show. As of right now, the majority of a lake that covers an area of 630 square miles is covered in blue-green algae. This can (and probably will) cause large fish kills, the extreme endangerment of native fishes and other species, and a huge economic problem considering that the lake provides a large part of our local seafood.

Those are only the immediate issues with the algae. An even bigger problem is the fact that the water that flowed in from the Miss displaced close to 75% of the water in the Lake. That means that most of the water in the lake now is turbid fresher water than what it's used to. I hope it won't, but it may cause eutrophication in the lake. That isn't just going to effect the animal life of the species living in the lake, but the species that depend on the lake for food. The water quality if going to effect not only those, but the over million people that are using it in various ways.

Anyway, that's what going on down here. I don't think anyone is entirely sure what we can do just yet to fix some of this. Then again, for starters, we could tackle John McGowan, tie him up and shove him in a closet. Or castrate him. We don't need his genes in our wading pool.