Corps begins closing Bonnet Carre Spillway

The U.S Army Corps of Engineers began closing gates at the Bonnet Carré Spillway on Monday, 10 days after it began opening gates in response to an unexpected rise in the Mississippi at New Orleans.
“The Army Corps will con-tinue to assess conditions of the Mississippi River and perform closure operations as the river flow rates continue to fall,” the Corps said on the spillway’s Facebook page.
At the Mississippi River’s peak flow 90 bays were open on the structure with a discharge of 80,000 cubic feet per second being diverted through the spillway. The Bonnet Carré Spillway is designed to ensure that a maximum river flow of 1.25 million cubic feet per second is passed through the Mississippi River and tributaries system at New Orleans.
Although water levels are receding, allowing the Army Corps to begin structure’s closure, the Mississippi River in the New Orleans District’s area of responsibility remains elevated. Army Corps per-sonnel will continue flood fight inspections alongside local levee districts and all levee and excavation restrictions remain in effect
The Corps had resisted calls from Mississippi to allow more water into the Atchafalaya as an alternative to opening the Bonnet Carré with possible impacts on property and fisheries there.
At noon Tuesday, the Atchafalaya River was at 7.5 feet and falling slowly.
The river had earlier been forecast to peak at 8.0 feet, a foot above the moderate flood stage, on Wednesday. The new prediction is for the river to fall to about 7.2 feet by Sunday.
The river was at 7.93 feet early Monday morning.