Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
having them ready for liquid explosives, to prepare the levees for emergency demolition to
make the floodway.
Well, anyway, my joining the Mississippi River Commission had the additional value of my
better understanding my responsibilities upstream.
The Mississippi River Commission has multiple events, two of them being the annual low
water and high water trips. Taking the motor vessel Mississippi, the president of the
commission, his staff, and the other commissioners make an inspection trip down the
Mississippi to New Orleans on one trip, and down the Atchafalaya to Morgan City on the
other.
During that trip the commission holds hearings daily aboard the vessel tied up at Memphis or
Vicksburg or other ports. People come aboard, especially from the levee districts, and report
on status or concerns with the project. The district engineer, in each case, gives his report so
all can hear his report. Then the others come up and provide comment and thus develop
issues that will be addressed later by the commission and commission staff. General Read, as
president of the Mississippi River Commission, presided at the hearings.
This was an interesting time because of several things. One was the New Madrid Floodway
issue that was controversial. People were coming aboard addressing the commission and
arguing the fact that the floodway was obsolete and shouldn't be continued. They later
carried that argument to the Congress and to the administration and to the courts.
Second, the whole issue of the Atchafalaya was still in question. That was, what is the right
thing to do to protect the environment of the Atchafalaya? We were embarked in planning for
starting with the construction of the second control structure where the Atchafalaya left the
Mississippi. The first one had been badly damaged in previous floods. There was always a
tension about whether the new one would be built in time before the next flood came down
and threatened it.
Finally, there were the arguments down at Morgan City on the floodwall project. This project
was being opposed by environmentalists and the oyster fishermen. They were saying that the
lack of fresh water was allowing saltwater encroachments and thereby destroying the oyster
beds and that we were destroying the whole Louisiana coast down there.
Finally, there was the question of saltwater intrusion up the Mississippi during flow regimes
and the viability of the New Orleans water supply.
Open channel engineering was not something we were involved with in the Ohio River
Division, so this was a whole new component for me, and very educational and very
enjoyable to participate in.
Q:
I'm glad you remembered that because I had it on my list.
A:
Beside the annual trips, we also had meetings from time to time, typically in Vicksburg. That
would be run much like our Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors meetings because
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