Bl rant

[Duck Butter]

I posted this in another thread, and the thread died, but this was over 50 years ago.

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Portal...lcasieuSWB.pdf


The History
In 1946, Congress authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]construct a deep-draft channel in the Calcasieu River from the Gulf of[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Mexico to Lake Charles. Millions of cubic yards of material were dredged [/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]from the river so that the waterway would be deep enough to handle[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]ocean-going vessels. Local interests believed a deep-draft channel would[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]significantly improve and increase navigation in this area. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]Those local visionaries were right. Since the channel was completed in[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]1953, the Port of Lake Charles has become one of the busiest ports in the[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]nation. In 1994, the city became America’s 12th largest port. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1 The Problem[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1[/While the deeper channel brought increased shipping and greater[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]prosperity to the area, it also allowed saltwater from the Gulf to migrate[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]further inland. The intruding saltwater threatened the upper Calcasieu[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]River, which provides water for irrigating the region’s rice fields. The[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]saltwater, which kills many types of vegetation, began to destroy some of[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]the sensitive wetlands of the Calcasieu River Basin. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=1][SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]The Solution[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]]To solve the saltwater intrusion problem, in 1962 Congress modified [/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]the existing authorization for the Calcasieu River project to include [/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]construction of a dam upstream of Lake Charles. The structure, commonly[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]referred to as the Calcasieu River Saltwater Barrier, was designed to block[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]the saltwater from traveling north, yet not hinder critical commercial[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]navigation on the river[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=1][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]