The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: thackney on June 11, 2019, 08:33:04 pm
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Worse than BP oil spill: Freshwater damage from flooding, spillway release hits Miss. hard
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/outdoors/2019/06/11/dolphins-sea-turtles-dead-spillway-opening-creates-ms-fisheries-disaster-worse-bp-oil-spill/1298003001/ (https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/outdoors/2019/06/11/dolphins-sea-turtles-dead-spillway-opening-creates-ms-fisheries-disaster-worse-bp-oil-spill/1298003001/)
June 11, 2019
The Bonnet Carre Spillway in Louisiana continues to pour fresh water from the Mississippi River into the Mississippi Sound, and the number of dead dolphins in Mississippi waters is already significantly higher than in 2010 after the BP oil spill.
"It's 128 (dead) dolphins and 154 sea turtles," said Moby Solangi, president and executive director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, on June 7. "The dolphins — quite a large number of them have lesions."
The lesions are caused by fresh water pouring into the Sound. Exactly what is killing dolphins without lesions and turtles isn't known, but Solangi said it is related to the lack of salinity.
"We're still investigating the cause and effect," Solangi said. "It could be from their diet or other things.
"Now, literally, it's a freshwater environment. It changes everything from the bottom up."
The water is being diverted from the historic Mississippi River flood that is taking place to protect New Orleans and areas south of the Bonnet Carre Spillway....
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Bonnet Carré spillway opening is causing a fisheries disaster in Mississippi, governor says
https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/article231300853.html (https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/article231300853.html)
...Bryant said death is particularly noticeable with oysters, which are unable to move. The oyster mortality rate, he said, is 70 percent, a figure that is expected to increase as the spillway remains open.
The letter says crab landings — the number of crabs harvested — are down 35 percent and also expected to climb. Shrimp season, he said, will start far later than the traditional June opening because numbers are so low.
“The declaration of a federal fisheries disaster for Mississippi may assist in obtaining financial assistance for all negatively impacted ecosystems, fisherman and related businesses in a timely manner, the governor’s letter concludes....
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Bonnet Carré Spillway
https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Portals/56/docs/PAO/Brochures/BCspillwaybooklet.pdf (https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Portals/56/docs/PAO/Brochures/BCspillwaybooklet.pdf)
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Rapid decreases in salinity in any marine or even brackish water environment are going to have serious consequences for the fauna involved. Especially benthic organisms which cannot relocate like oysters and clams, and those which normally feed or spawn in shallower waters (crabs, many varieties of fish). While people get all up at arms over oil, fresh water introduced in massive quantities will kill everything caught in the low salinity zone, or organisms which wander in. I would wager plankton in the area are being destroyed wholesale, too, so every aspect of the food chain is being affected.
With all this talk about 'dead zones' offshore, the agencies involved are creating one, to the detriment of the fisheries industries there, the wildlife, the local economy, and the residents.
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With all this talk about 'dead zones' offshore, the agencies involved are creating one, to the detriment of the fisheries industries there, the wildlife, the local economy, and the residents.
All the fresh water is coming. They can divert portions of it along the spillways or let it all go out the main pipe. But it is going to be a big impact either way. Flooding through New Orleans and the associated contaminants would likely be a worse problem, but in other areas.
So far they have not opened the Morganza Spillway.
https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2019/06/07/morganza-spillway-opening-postponed/ (https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2019/06/07/morganza-spillway-opening-postponed/)
https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/a-flooding-reprieve-for-25000-acres-of-louisiana-farmland (https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/a-flooding-reprieve-for-25000-acres-of-louisiana-farmland)
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All the fresh water is coming. They can divert portions of it along the spillways or let it all go out the main pipe. But it is going to be a big impact either way. Flooding through New Orleans and the associated contaminants would likely be a worse problem, but in other areas.
So far they have not opened the Morganza Spillway.
https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2019/06/07/morganza-spillway-opening-postponed/ (https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2019/06/07/morganza-spillway-opening-postponed/)
https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/a-flooding-reprieve-for-25000-acres-of-louisiana-farmland (https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/a-flooding-reprieve-for-25000-acres-of-louisiana-farmland)
I can see where seed money investment, planting expenses, etc. represent a real loss of capital to lending agencies, insurance companies, and farmers. That, however doesn't change the impact to the watermen who will feel this impact for years. (it's not just this year if spawns are adversely affected, estuarine and nearshore marine fishery areas can be slow to recover. After Hurricane Agnes, the recovery was slow through the Potomac and tributaries, and the Chesapeake from the huge influx of fresh water.)
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Sorry, not understanding this. The Bonnet Carre spillway dumps into Lake Pontchartrain.
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Sorry, not understanding this. The Bonnet Carre spillway dumps into Lake Pontchartrain.
The lake is a brackish water estuary.
That's more saline than ordinary fresh water, but less saline than open ocean. The salinity depends on a lot of different factors, but like salt water fish, brackish water fish (and other brackish water critters) can only withstand a certain degree of reduction in salinity before their cells explode (osmosis draws in excess water, exceeding the capacity of the cell membrane) and they die. Those ocean critters that can foray into fresh water do so by releasing salt through their skin to create an envelope of saltier water around them (some sharks and rays, for instance).
As a rule, fish and other critters who spawn in estuaries spawn where the salinity is optimal for the hatchlings, but a strong and sustained influx of fresh water can change that, and the result is high mortality of the new critters.
Oysters, clams, and other benthic critters can't migrate or escape, and are doomed.
Some critters can escape, others are trapped by rapid changes or just immobility, they either get to saltier water or die.
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Sorry, not understanding this. The Bonnet Carre spillway dumps into Lake Pontchartrain.
@Hoodat
And Lake Pontchartrain dumps into the Mississippi Sound.
(http://icons.wxug.com/data/wximagenew/m/MargieKieper/392.jpg)
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@thackney
Dangit, you just turned it into a CSTR differential equation. AAAAARRRGGGHH!!!!!!
Quick fix - make Lake Pontchartrain about 7 times deeper. Dredge away, boys! Use the new dirt to raise the levees another 20 feet. Think of all the jobs!
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@thackney
Dangit, you just turned it into a CSTR differential equation. AAAAARRRGGGHH!!!!!!
Quick fix - make Lake Pontchartrain about 7 times deeper. Dredge away, boys! Use the new dirt to raise the levees another 20 feet. Think of all the jobs!
Quick fix requires a time machine. You need to have the work complete before May 10, 2019.
But if you manage that, you killed Lake Pontchartrain with the sea water coming into the lake to unless you lower the lake level with dams to the sea. Which would probably kill the lake as well.
So you have to take out the sediment and fill at the same rate as the excess water flows in.
Good Luck!!!
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Quick fix requires a time machine. You need to have the work complete before May 10, 2019.
OK, sir. But that's gonna cost you lots of overtime. Can SAP handle 792-hour days?
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OK, sir. But that's gonna cost you lots of overtime. Can SAP handle 792-hour days?
:beer: