Drought upriver has left the Mississippi River so low and slow that salt water is creeping farther than usual along the bottom toward New Orleans and threatening drinking water, the Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday.
The Corps plans an underwater levee to block the wedge of heavier salt water before it can get into two of the four water treatment plants in Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans, officials said in a news conference posted on YouTube.
Salt already in the river's lowest stretch could affect the taste, smell and colour of drinking water but is not a general health threat, the Plaquemines Parish government said in an advisory Wednesday. Sodium levels are above those recommended for drinking water for people on very low-sodium diets, so people on such diets or on dialysis should check with their doctors, it said.
In August, scientists said the Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" where the water holds too little oxygen for marine life was smaller than expected because drought had made the river sluggish.