As Louisiana officials prepared for Hurricane Barry to make its way to the state, they were also reaching out to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross about another disaster that’s taking place.
Last week, the state’s six U.S. representatives and both U.S. Senators wrote to Ross and asked him to begin the process of declaring a fishery disaster in the state. The lawmakers wanted the declaration because the opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway, a step necessary due to the Mississippi River flooding, has dumped an inordinate amount of freshwater into Lake Pontchartrain.
The lake feeds the Gulf of Mexico, which is home to numerous stocks harvested by Louisiana fishermen.
The letter was signed by U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy and U.S. Representatives Steve Scalise, Garret Graves, Cedric Richmond, Clay Higgins, Ralph Abraham, and Mike Johnson. All but Richmond are Republicans.
According to the letter, 2019 marks the first time the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needed to open the spillway twice in one year. That was necessary by the Mississippi River broke a 92-year-old flooding record earlier this year.
“Each opening of this flood control structure causes significant ecological impacts, as the surge of hundreds of thousands of cubic feet per second of fresh water inundates Lake Pontchartrain... These impacts disrupt the natural processes of many different species of aquatic life; in particular oysters, crab, shrimp, and certain inshore and nearshore finfish species,” the lawmakers wrote.
The lawmakers said the historic flooding only compounds the problems Louisiana fishermen also face, including what they called “unfair” foreign competition and the summer’s “dead zone” within the Gulf of Mexico. That zone is expected to approach record levels due to the Mississippi River flooding.
Late last month, officials at the Corps New Orleans office were hopeful the spillway could be closed by the middle of July. However, that was before Hurricane Barry hit and dumped more rainfall in an already oversaturated area. Estimates now indicate most of southern Louisiana will receive between three to five inches of rain from the storm, which reached a peak status of a Category 1 hurricane as it hit land.
Initial forecasts called for the New Orleans area to get up to 20 inches of rain from the first major storm of the 2019 hurricane season.
Lawmakers said they were thankful Barry’s impact wasn’t as severe as some expected.
“I, for one, am extremely grateful that the forecasted rains and flooding did not materialize... This is a storm that could have played out differently,” Edwards told the press on Sunday, 14 July.
