Why The Amite River floods
Thanks to Bayoumanchac.org for the historical info contained here !
Thanks to The Amite River Basin Commission for 20 years of doing
nothing but wasting our tax dollars on endless and pointless studies and
to the Corp of Engineers for wisely spending 160 million dollars on a
project that will lower the flood levels on the Amite River 0.60 of a foot on the
river south of Denham Springs
First, a little history on the Amite / Comite / Bayou Manchac Watershed so that you will
understand how we changed the natural flow of this river basin.
Prior to 1932 the Amite River, Bayou Manchac and parts of the Comite River
Were used to move materials to and from the New Orleans area and to docks on
The Mississippi River in East Baton Rouge, Ascension, Iberville, and Livingston
Parishes. Materials such as cotton, timber, pecans, fur, and sugar cane were the
main source of income for the people in the area and the rivers and bayous were the
only way to move materials in quantity.
Barge traffic was at its peak in 1916 with an estimated 109,117 tons of material shipped
down the Amite to New Orleans. (that’s a lot of pecans) This figure dropped to 6,000 tons in 1932 as the route was taken over by truck traffic due to the building of a highway to the New Orleans area.
During the Civil War gun boats of both sides engaged in battles on both the Amite River and Bayou Manchac. The area surrounding the Amite River was the only “highway” that
was available to the people of the time and it was heavily defended by the south and heavily attacked by the north.
The river system was kept open by the spring floods from the Mississippi which came down Bayou Manchac and had enough current to wash the silt and debris down the river into Lake Maurepas, through Pass Manchac and into Lake Pontchartrain.
In 1814 Jean Lafitte pointed out to General Andrew Jackson that the British could sneak in through Bayou Manchac and attack New Orleans. Jackson then ordered Bayou Manchac closed where it joins the Mississippi in such a way that it would be impossible for the enemy to navigate it. After Bayou Manchac was cut off from the Mississippi in 1814, the area experienced fewer floods and was settled. Legislation passed in 1826 allowed James Neilson, John Kleinpeter, and W. Webb of East Baton Rouge, and Charles De Armas and P. Winfree of Iberville to permanently close Bayou Manchac in order to reduce flooding into their fields. The earthen dam was completed in 1828.
The first portion of the present Gulf Intercoastal Waterway to receive the attention of the federal government lay east of the Mississippi River. Almost twenty years before Florida and Texas were admitted to the Union, legislation of March 3, 1826 authorized a survey of a canal route between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. In 1829, Brigadier General Simon Bernard, a member of the Board of Internal Improvements, and Army Engineer Captain William Tell Poussin, functioning as an assistant to the board, reported their survey findings. The last stretch of the Intercoastal Canal would be the re-connection of New Orleans to the Mississippi via Bayou Manchac. Congress failed to appropriate funds for the project.
In 1835 the Louisiana Legislature instructed the Board of Public Works to perform a feasibility study on reopening Bayou Manchac for navigation to the Mississippi. After the Civil War, the War Department Engineers prepared a detailed engineering report, complete with maps, diagrams, and cross-sections, for the straightening and improving of the Bayou Manchac - Amite River route for "First Class Steamboat Traffic." The project was never realized. The U.S. Congress appropriated funds to undertake navigational improvements along the Bayou Manchac - Amite River route in 1879-1880. The project went unfulfilled. Between 1891 and 1893, the Corps removed snags, logs, and trees along Bayou Manchac and in 1895 a turning basin for steam boats traveling Bayou Manchac was dredged out of Ward's Creek.
In 1909 the Corps of Engineers constructed the Delatour, a combination dredge and snag boat built specifically for the Bayou Manchac - Amite River route.
The arrival of the automobile and the 1914 erection of a bridge over Bayou Manchac for the gravel road to New Orleans brought a sharp decrease in the amount of commercial water traffic bringing supplies to the plantations and businesses along Bayou Manchac from New Orleans. Raw materials continued to be shipped out via Bayou Manchac and the Amite River for some time while the supply deliveries slowly dried up. The bridge was a drawbridge and was opened and closed to let the steamboats through by John L. Dixon, manager of the Hope Villa Mercantile Store.
Raw material transport to New Orleans along Bayou Manchac and the Amite River hit an all time high in 1916 (although data from the intense logging of the 1920's is not complete and could have been much greater). Traffic including cotton and logs was estimated at 109,117 tons for 1916.
During the 1920's, the Lyon Cypress Lumbering Company of Garyville logged the Amite River - Bayou Manchac (mainly Spanish Lake and the Amite River Basin) corridor to exhaustion. Deep scars did not occur with the aerial (overhead-cableway) skidders of the time. The dredge, Grosse Tete, removed 1,354 obstructions from the Amite River - Bayou Manchac route in 1926. The project only went as far as Ward's Creek. It was the dream of Louis U. Babin, that Bayou Manchac would once again be joined to the Mississippi through the use of locks so that barges could save 125 miles by taking this short cut to New Orleans. Luckily this was before oil was discovered in the area and he had little popular support. He did leave a "monument" though. He was so positive that the Bayou would one day be opened that he was instrumental in having the Hwy. 73 bridge built so that barges could pass under it. The bridge still exists today on the "Old Jefferson Highway."
Sometime in the mid 1950’s Wards Creek was dredged, widened, and straightened. The lower section of Wards Creek is identified on maps today as "Diversion Canal," not to be confused with the Amite River Diversion Canal. Wards Creek is a tributary to Bayou Manchac on the maps, but geologically speaking, Wards Creek is the main channel that becomes Bayou Manchac.
L. D. Kelleher's graduate work at LSU in 1969 included a feasibility study on opening Bayou Manchac to barge traffic. He got the attention and support of State Senator A. L. Stewart of Livingston Parish.
A lot of studies have been done on why the river floods, but if you simply look at the data it becomes apparent the river has silted up and needs to be dredged and the snags
removed. The blocking of the spring flood from the Mississippi has caused the river to
become a simple drainage ditch and is no longer able to be used for large boat traffic.
Solution?
Put a pumping station on the west end of Bayou Manchac where it once connected to the Mississippi River.
Pump water out of the Mississippi when the Amite is down and pump water into the Mississippi when the Amite is in flood. This will allow the river and bayou to flow and it will reform the natural channel to Lake Maurepas.
Thanks to Bayoumanchac.org for the historical info contained here !