Old River Control Structure Structure to prevent the Atchafalaya becoming the main channel of the Mississippi. The project was completed in 1963, and it completely sealed off the Old river. However, a lock, a diversion channel, and flood spillway were installed to allow barges to pass between the Atchafalaya and Mississippi. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers measured the amount of water flowing through the Mississippi River and compared it to the amount entering the Atchafalaya Basin by monitoring "latitude flow" at the latitude of the Red River Landing, located five miles downstream of Old River. In this case, latitude flow is a combination
Morganza to the Gulf to 4 in favor of the Water Resources Development Act, an enormous water projects bill containing the levee system. Congress has not passed a WRDA bill since 2000, and authorization for the Morganza project has stalled annually with it. Next WRDA will head to conference committee, where the House and the Senate will iron out any differences between their versions of the bill. Last year, WRDA died in the waning hours of the Senate stuck in conference committee. But Jerome Zeringue, executive director of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation Board, said that the May passage of WRDA and a lack