Flooding Along the Mississippi River: The Impact on the Gulf of Mexico

The Mississippi River is one of the world’s major river systems not only in size, but in habitat diversity as well. It is the third longest river in North America. It flows 2,350 miles from its source at Lake Itasca through the center of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mississippi River is highly regarded as the most important river in Louisiana. One of the lesser known rivers is just as phenomenal, however. The Atchafalaya River (pronounced At-cha-fa-lie-uh), which is adjacent to the Louisianan southern half of the Mississippi River, is so much of a phenomena that the United States Army Corps has been put in charge of controlling the river!

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was one of the most destructive in the history of the United States, proving that the levee only policy was a failure and the limits of human control over the river. The beginning of the flood, from the initial crevasse, poured out “468,000 second-feet onto the Delta that triple the volume of a flooding Colorado, more than double a flooding Niagara Falls and the entire upper Mississippi ever carried” (pg 203). The flood of 1927 “shifted perceptions of the role and responsibility of the federal government… shattered the myth of a quasi-feudal bond between Delta blacks and the southern aristocracy...accelerated the great migration of blacks north. And it altered both southern and national politics....”

Nowadays, people stay away from analyzing how their actions impact the environment producing long lasting consequences. The opportunity to act is right where anyone stands and the closest one to this area is known as the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Therefore, the amount of nutrients going into the Chesapeake Bay should be reduced since the use of fertilizers has increased dramatically over time causing water pollution and the death of many species.

The main problem this paper intends to discuss regards the Gulf of Mexico dead zone. This dead zone, which for the most part encompasses the water off the coast of Louisiana, becomes depleted in dissolved oxygen. The dead zone is an outcome of nutrient runoff into the Gulf from urban areas, wastewater treatment plants, and from atmospheric deposition, however, the majority comes from fertilizers used in agriculture around the Mississippi River Basin. The increase in nutrients has been affecting the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem by forming difficult conditions in which organisms live. Another consequence that is directly related to the ecosystem damage is the effect on the fishing economy in in the region. In the paper I will address the questions, how has the dead zone specifically caused damage to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico and how has that damage affected the economic productivity of the fisheries? Furthermore, what policy solutions exist to solve the dead zone problem?

Recently, the heap of pollution caused a massive drainage in the Everglades’ water quality. Tramontana and Johnson (2003) reported that “much of Florida’s early development was based upon draining and removing excess water from wetlands… and it was thought if drained, the land could be put to better use” (Human Development section, para. 2). Pollution destroys the cleanliness of the wetland leading to a decrease in restoration. Millions amount of cash produced to repair water quality leads to the consequences of continuous flow of freshwater.

Lastly, I will explain the dead zone of the chesapeake Bay. Excessive Nitrogen and Phosphrous pollution from human activities cause “Dead Zones” , which are areas with low amounts of oxygen. With little or no oxygen, fish, crabs, oysters, and other aquatic animals literally suffocate. Further excess in nutrients also fuels the growth of dense algae blooms that block sunlight that underwater grasses need to grow in order to continue providing food for waterfowl and shelter for blue crabs and juvenile fish. (Chesapeake Bay Foundation) (Dead Zones)

Man and nature have worked together to reshape the environment in coastal Louisiana. The Mississippi slows when it reaches the

Along with this devastation, the New River which is the "most polluted waterway in the nation " (due heavily to its raw sewage content, agricultural drainage water and powerplant effluent ) that flows from Mexico and dead ends (literally) into the Salton Sea.(Salton Sea Authority and the Bureau of Reclamation, 1997) These two factors mentioned above are the main cause for the massive fish die off , bird die off, the speeding up process of eutrophication, five forms of predominant bacteria and contamination from DDT , selenium, Botulism , New Castle disease, as well as alga blooms and horrific odors.

The Mississippi River influences the states of Louisiana in numerous ways. The river can be both beneficial and harmful to the state. It may help with industries, but at the same time it may be harming by taking away from Louisiana’s coastline. While erosion is widely considered to be a destructive occurrence, it does have some necessary features. For example, erosion provides many nutrients for animals living in the water, and it creates new deltas that many animals live in. Since the beginning of Louisiana, the Mississippi River has been a crucial factor in the creation and the development of Louisiana’s economy. It has helped with things like trade and the growth of crops. The Mississippi is also significant in the way Louisiana is shaped

History will affirm that from the beginning of the settlement of New Orleans in 1717, it was then and continues to be a location destined to periodic flooding caused by the Mississippi river and rising storms. Throughout time, New Orleans would challenge nature by primarily fortifying the river’s natural levees to periodically engineering levees to combat issues of flooding, only to return to reinforcing or rebuilding according to damages inflicted as time progressed. Each attempt to fight nature from overwhelming New Orleans kept setting engineers back. Refusal to abandon the coastal areas became more costly over time; the intent to preserve the coast became more valuable than the value of life and property.

The Atchafalaya River was created over 1000 years ago. It was formed because of the mighty Mississippi river. It plays a very important role in the everyday lives of the Louisiana people. The conceivable redirection of the Mississippi River and man1s push to oppose it, present one of the best stream designing issues ever experienced. The proof that backings the case that catch of the Mississippi by the Atchafalaya is inevitable, is accessible and plentiful. Information on the decay of the limit of the Mississippi underneath Old River and the expanding limit of the Atchafalaya has been gathered and validated. Geotectonic movement a1 so shows that the inclination toward preoccupation is expanding.

Texas has received record amounts of rainfall, causing serious flooding all throughout the state of Texas. According to an article published on June 3rd, Houston is looking at an economic impact of roughly 550 million dollars. This interests me greatly because I live in Texas, and seeing prices going up, especially on local produces, is something that will directly impact me. Because of the record rain falls, local farmers are especially in a world of hurt as their crops were destroyed by the rain. For local farmers markets, and local grocery stores that support local farmers, I think you'll start to see a raise in prices as the farmers will be having to make up their margins somewhere. Also, I think you'll start to see Texas lean on other

The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) harbors a rich biota with ecological and high commercial significance (Yanez-Arancibia and Day 2004). In this ecosystem, the microorganisms are the primary consumers and play major role in the biogeochemical cycling of organic matters (Pomeroy 1974). The GoM ecosystem is often perturbed by natural calamities or human activities affecting the microbial community structure (Kryachko et al. 2012) and the associated nutrient cycling at all trophic levels (Pomeroy 1974; Camilli et al. 2010; Atlas and Hazen 2011).

Ocean “dead zones” are floating heaps of trash that have floated away from coasts because of currents. Currently, a little less than 2% of our oceans are made up of dead zones, according to Ker Than (2009). Marine life below and around these areas cannot survive due to the lack of oxygen. This phenomenon often happens in creeks and streams as well when a sewage pipe runs into that body of water and an oxygen lag occurs when the sewage runs downstream. No aquatic life can live in this area, other than some bacteria and worms, because of low oxygen levels and other materials, minerals, and vitamins that can be too much for delicate aquatic life.