European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 13, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Doily Magazine trying to keep mid americas in line is it Only just a matter of time before the Mississippi alters its course to the Gulf of Mexico up new York times it is the old Man River of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein and Mark trains Broad Avenue to it is the River of steamboats and Grain elevators and petrochemical Oil tankers and Oyster the Mississippi is mid americas major artery and the life blood of new and according to professors at Louisiana state it is Only a matter of time before it alters its course to the Gulf of Mexico Many Miles to the West of new Orleans in the alters the life of the City and the future of the it May sound futuristic and and the army corps of engineers is doing All anyone could do to keep the River in its present course for As Long As said Raphael a professor of civil engineering at the but in not sure it can Ever be we can delay he but ultimately the River will take in the Long Man cant and were not talking about the very Long were talking about 30 or 40 years at the outside Only a year or two with a sufficiently Awe some the army corps of engineers disagrees with the assessment and prognostication of Kazmann and his Assoc David who is a professor of economics at Louisiana others who have studied the River say there is no Way to know for certain what will happen because this is the first time it has tried to change course since modern engineering practices have been used to control we cant let it said Bruce a spokesman for the which is responsible for monitoring and controlling wherever possible the flow of the we Are charged by Congress not to let that the costs to to to this entire nation would be too to meet that the corps will begin construction next summer on a million auxiliary flood control system to Back up the one now primarily responsible for keeping the River in its Rivers tend to seek the shortest available route to an the Mississippi has changed course several times is Nee its formation near the end of the ice including six times in modern according to engineers and the Rivers most recent Effort to alter its path was first noticed in the had it been allowed to go its own the change would be irreversible by now and most of the water the River brings from the North would be flowing through the Atchafalaya River which now drains 30 percent of the Mississippi flow to the if nature prevails and the River washes away a flood control Structure near 200 Miles Northwest of new the route to the Gulf would be shortened by almost two thirds but the consequences would be As outlined by Kazmann in a recent report to the Louisiana water resources research the re i it a times february 1981 Gions Commerce and the lives of millions of people would be significantly perhaps in some of these ways the present River Channel would become a Saltwater Estuary of the Gulf of Mexico All the Way upstream to Baton Rouge and perhaps continuous dredging thus would be required to keep it open As a port and new Orleans would be forced to find a completely new source of fresh communities in and adjacent to the Atchafalaya a sin would become subject to including Morgan an offshore Oil drilling Supply Bridges carrying railroads and highways across the Basin would East West traffic would be disrupted for several and would be rerouted on a Detour in excess of 200 Many of the natural Gas pipelines across the Basin would be broken and altering the source of Natu ral Gas for 28 Eastern and Southeastern including new York and new a loss of at least 25 percent of natural Gas would  in the v Many Industrial concerns hundreds line the River from North of Baton Rouge to the Gulf of Mexico would be forced to close or change their operations from fresh water to Salt water for Cooling and processing Barge shipments to the Busy port from the North would but it might be necessary to build locks at Simmes the Adverse effects on the ports were not included in the Kazman Johnson estimate that relocation of the riverbed would cause billion in losses in the first year after a Channe altering that figure is very on the Low Kazmann said in an it could go As High As depending on the violence of nature in effecting the the two year study did not estimate the potential Cost in the relocation of residents and movable property in the Atchafalaya flood the ecology of the Region would be dramatically altered As Freshwater areas were overcome by Salt water and As fish and Plant life were unable to survive the major sections of wildlife Habi Tat would also be but Sossaman insisted that such devastation would not and said that the research report that had predicted these events was based on information at least four years out of the stars and stripes Page 13