The Wild Side for April 13, 2008

• By JOE MACALUSO
• Advocate Outdoors writer
• Published: Apr 13, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Don’t know if this is an “us” problem or a “them” problem, but what is it about the latest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to open the Bonnet Carré Spillway that bothers me? (Maybe it’s a “me” problem.)

The Corps opened the Bonnet Carré at noon Friday.

Yes, the Mississippi River is high and continues to rise.

Yes, there is cause for concern when the river hits the 38-foot mark here and tops the 15-foot reading on the New Orleans gauge. The river’s been above those numbers since late last month.

Yes, since late August 2005, the word “flood” spells tragedy in New Orleans. Since 1927, too, for lots of other villages, towns and cities along the Mighty Mississippi.

Yes, all are valid reasons to spend valuable resources to divert thousands of gallons of freshwater every second into a mostly saltwater ecosystem.

Yes, history tells us the marine organisms living in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin and Mississippi Sound benefit from this freshwater division. There are some restorative effects to our marshes, too.

And though the freshwater diversion changes fishing patterns and the dispersal of fish, shrimp and crabs (oysters are affected, too) in the Basin, recreational catches remain good throughout the summer and the following fall. In the short term, the diversion does have a downside for oysters and shrimp.

He’s my problem: The Bonnet Carré Spillway has 350 bays spanning the expanse that keeps the old Bonnet Carré Plantation lands from an annual invasion of the Mississippi River. This spillway structure was built to alleviate some of the problems New Orleans faced during the 1927 flood. (Levees south of the city were dynamited to relieve the pressure on the levees and “save” the city.)

Only 38 of the 350 bays were opened Friday, just a little more than 10 percent. My phone has burned up since late Wednesday when word leaked out that the Corps was opening the gates for the first time in 11 years.

Even by the best estimates, this diversion will lower the Mississippi River by no more than four inches.

So, you have to ask the question — why? Why so few bays?

Are there “Save The City” slogans over the doors at Corps offices in New Orleans and Vicksburg, Miss., as a reminder of Corps mistakes discovered in the days after Aug. 29, 2005?