Atchafalaya Basin Atchafalaya River has been a backswamp, low area between the paths of the Mississippi River through the process of delta switching, which has built the extensive delta plain of Louisiana. The natural levees of the Mississippi River (on the east) and the levees along its previous course (now Bayou Teche) on the west define the Atchafalaya Basin. The central basin is further bordered by man-made levees designed to contain and funnel floodwaters released from the Mississippi at the Old River Control Structure and the Morganza Spillway south toward Morgan City and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico. Historically there were
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