Wax Lake was a lake in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana that was converted into an outlet channel, the Wax Lake outlet , to divert water from the Atchafalaya River to the Gulf of Mexico .
16-615: Berwick Bay is the section of the Lower Atchafalaya River in Louisiana from Morgan City north to Sixmile Lake . U.S. Route 90 crosses Berwick Bay connecting the town of Berwick on the west bank of the Atchafalaya to Morgan City on the east bank. There is also a Southern Pacific vertical lift bridge connecting the two municipalities. This stretch of water lends its name to Vessel Traffic Service Berwick Bay which manages
32-692: A channel of the Mississippi, through extensive levees and floodways, past Morgan City , and empties into the Gulf in Atchafalaya Bay approximately 15 miles (24 km) south of Morgan City. Since the late 20th century, the river has been forming a new delta in the bay, the only place on the Louisiana coastline that is gaining ground rather than eroding. The river's valley was designated Atchafalaya National Heritage Area in 2006. Wax Lake The history of
48-535: A navigable channel of the Mississippi River has been a significant project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for more than a century. Natural development of the river channel, coupled with channel training and maintenance for flood control and navigation, have combined to isolate the river from the swamp. The river valley forms the Atchafalaya Basin and Atchafalaya Swamp located in southern Louisiana near
64-460: A period of higher water flow), which will create a new path of flow around it. There is then an added deposition upstream, thus causing the river to bifurcate. This results in the familiar dendritic pattern. Because it was entirely created during an observable period and, other than the creation of the canal, was not altered by humans, it has often been in studies of deltaic formation. In the time since Hurricane Katrina , it has also served and as
80-534: A river in Louisiana is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Atchafalaya River The Atchafalaya River ( / ə ˌ tʃ æ f . ə ˈ l aɪ . ə / French : La Rivière Atchafalaya , Spanish : Río Atchafalaya ) is a 137-mile-long (220 km) distributary of the Mississippi River and Red River in south central Louisiana in the United States. It flows south, just west of
96-617: The Gulf of Mexico . The Atchafalaya became a main distributary of the Mississippi in 1839 to 1849 when locals removed a huge log jam (the Great Raft ) that was obstructing the Atchafalaya River. The river is formed near Simmesport at the confluence of the Red River with the Mississippi, where the Mississippi connects to the Red River by the 7-mile-long (11 km) canalized Old River (part of
112-613: The Morganza Spillway further downstream is also used to regulate volume. In 1942 part of the flow of the Atchafalaya River was diverted through Wax Lake to the Gulf of Mexico further west. During the 2011 Mississippi River floods , the Old River complex was discharging more than 706,000 cubic feet per second (20,000 m /s) into the Atchafalaya River, and the Morganza Floodway was discharging one-fourth of its capacity. If
128-642: The Old River Control Structure ). It receives 30% of the combined flow of the Red and Mississippi Rivers. (The remaining 70% continues down the Mississippi River.) The volume the Atchafalaya receives from the Mississippi is controlled by the Old River Control Structure, a system of a low-sill structure, an auxiliary structure, an overbank structure, a navigation lock, and a power plant near Red River Landing, Louisiana. In times of extreme flooding,
144-517: The Mississippi River, and is the fifth largest river in North America, by discharge. The name Atchafalaya comes from Choctaw for 'long river', from hachcha , 'river', and falaya , 'long'. The Atchafalaya River is navigable and provides a significant industrial shipping channel for the state of Louisiana. It is the cultural heart of the Cajun Country . The maintenance of the river as
160-432: The Mississippi were allowed to flow freely, the shorter and steeper Atchafalaya would capture the main flow of the Mississippi, permitting the river to bypass its current path through the important ports of Baton Rouge and New Orleans . Despite control efforts, some researchers believe the likelihood of this event increases each year due to natural forces inherent to river deltas. The Atchafalaya River meanders south as
176-587: The Southern Pacific Railroad swing bridge in Baldwin as well as the three span K-truss bridge in Calumet, a total six bridges were built on dry land between Baldwin and Calumet. The dredging of the approximately 15 miles (24 km) of Wax Lake Outlet, that begins at Six Mile Lake (Yellow Bayou), and the "Charenton Drainage and Navigation Canal", that began at Bayou Teche in Baldwin, both started in 1941 and
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#1732869519451192-689: The Wax Lake Outlet, as well as the 20,000 cfs "Charenton Drainage and Navigation Canal", the Avoca Island Cutoff (Avoca Island-Cutoff Bayou drainage channel), and to a lesser extent the Chene, Boeuf, and Black navigation channel, was to provide flood relief to the lower Atchafalaya Basin and Morgan City . The Wax Lake outlet is an artificial channel that was created by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1942 to divert 30 percent of
208-466: The flow from the Atchafalaya River to the Gulf of Mexico and reduce flood stages at Morgan City, Louisiana. The project design flood flow capacity for the outlet is 440,000 cu ft/s (12,000 m /s). In a reversal of normal building procedures construction of the bridges began first, as well as the Bayou Teche floodgates at Calumet. Including the elevated roadways across the flood basin, and
224-766: The waters south of 29°45' N., west of 91°10' W., north of 29°37' N., and east of 91°18' W. These waters include the junction of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway , the Port Allen-Morgan City Alternate Route and several tributary bayous. Narrow bridge openings and a swift river current require one-way traffic flow through the bridges. VTS Berwick Bay is unique among United States Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Services because it maintains direct control of vessel traffic. 29°42′05″N 91°13′02″W / 29.7013°N 91.2172°W / 29.7013; -91.2172 This article related to
240-537: Was completed in 1942. The Wax Lake Delta is a river delta in Louisiana that was formed by rapid deposition of sediment following the creation of a canal through Wax Lake off of the Atchafalaya River in 1942. It is roughly 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Morgan City adjacent to the Atchafalaya delta . It receives 34 million tons of sediment per year. In the 64 years between 1941 and 2005, Wax Lake
256-468: Was completely filled with sediment, and the delta prograded approximately 8 km into the sea. The Wax Lake Delta's distributary channels form via deposition of mouth bars. The first branch to the west is Campground Pass and further south there are the three main branches, East Pass , Greg Pass , and Main Pass . The mid-channel is eroded and deposited downstream at the mouth of the river (usually during
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