The goal of the Mississippi River Water Reintroduction into Bayou Lafourche is to increase the amount of fresh water in the bayou. While there are many reasons for sending fresh Mississippi River water down Bayou Lafourche, there are two that are more important than any others. The first benefit of the completed project will be for coastal restoration and therefore the protection of approximately 120,000 acres in the Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary region. The Barataria Terrebonne National Estuary is currently the fastest disappearing land mass on Earth. The second benefit is to improve the water quality in Bayou Lafourche, by reducing the saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico. Water from the bayou is used by over 300,000 residents as their sole source of potable or drinking water. Bringing more fresh water down Bayou Lafourche is also vital for economic growth and development and to help increase tourism in this area. The bayou was once a main transportation route for business and is still the backbone for progress. |
"Bayou Lafourche, say Louisianians, is the longest village street in the world; and I don't know of any place that has attempted to refute that claim. It covers 120 curling miles and along practically all that length it is impossible to ride or walk and be out of sight or hearing of a house or houseboat, both filled with people. For mile on mile, a single line of homes hugs the waterway on one bank, and sometimes on the other as well. Here and there towns appear, but often it cannot be determined when a town ends and mere residences on the bayou begin. The string becomes double for a time, the second following the curve of the stream like the first; and then it thins again. How many houses stand in this file, nobody knows. Some have declared that not even Holland of the old days had a greater multiplicity of rural people per linear mile." Louisiana author- Harnett Kane
The Bayous of Louisiana (1943) 
|
