The US Army Corps of Engineers is planning to barge 36 million gallons of freshwater daily into the lower Mississippi River near New Orleans as saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico continues to threaten drinking water supply, officials said Friday.
The move comes as water levels are plummeting for the second consecutive year after this summer’s blistering heat and low rainfall triggered extreme drought over parts of the central US.
As water levels drop, the threat of saltwater intrusion grows in Louisiana as ocean water pushes north into drinking water systems, unimpeded by the Mississippi’s normally mighty flow rate.
The Mississippi River is forecast to reach “historic lows over the next several weeks,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said during a Friday news conference.
It goes a little bit deeper than that.
Yeah, we would progress slower. But that’s not the real issue. The real issue is competing with other nations. If the US stops using fossil fuels but China keeps using them, then the US just handicapped itself and China is going to progress faster because of it.
I’m not saying it should be this way, just that it is. And it’s not just ‘the economy.’ It’s the military. Like it or not, nations are at war even when they’re not.