By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – With what has been described as a “massive amount” of water heading down the Mississippi River, Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Thursday that the Bonnet Carre Spillway will be opened Monday morning in an effort to relieve pressure on levees further downriver.

The opening was announced during a news conference Thursday in Baton Rouge.

Jindal said the river is expected to rise and crest at record levels due to heavy rain and snowmelt in the Mississippi Valley. The high river estimates have already prompted the dynamiting of levees in parts of Missouri. They are also expecting to prompt the opening of the Morganza Spillway west of Baton Rouge, which has not happened since 1973.

“The National Weather Service estimates show that the river will be up to historically high levels for approximately seven to 10 days, which will be especially trying to the fortification of our levees and floodwalls,” Jindal said.

Starting at 8 a.m. Monday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin pulling the wooden “needles” between the bays of the Bonnet Carre Spillway to allow river water to freely flow into Lake Pontchartrain. Spillway Project Manager Christopher Brantley said the corps is expected to open all 350 bays of the flood control structure in an effort to keep the volume of river flow from exceeding 1.25 million cubic feet per second.

The general public is allowed to view the opening procedures at the Bonnet Carre Spillway Project Office, located at 16302 River Road in Norco.

Brantley said the spillway is capable of diverting up to 250,000 cubic feet of water per second from the normal flow of the river. He said that number translates to roughly 20 percent of the river flow through the area. He said the spillway could be open for as long as a month in order to keep the river below flood stage.

The National Weather Service’s Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center’s 28-day prediction calls for the river to be at 16.1 feet on June 1, the start of hurricane season, which is only about four feet short of the 20 foot protection level guaranteed by floodwalls in New Orleans.

Brantley said the spillway opening would prompt the closure of all public access areas on the floor of the spillways, which includes all boat launches and ATV areas, as well as the lower guide levee access road. He said the Spillway Road, which runs between the communities of Norco and Montz, has already been closed because of water leaking through the bays.

Brantley said park rangers and St. Charles Sheriff’s deputies will be on hand Monday to make sure no one tries to sneak in while the water is flowing through.

He said when the structure was opened in 2008 a trio of kayakers made their way into the spillway and ended up having to be rescued from Lake Pontchartrain.

“We don’t want to have to pull people away from other assignments to have to rescue people from the water,” Brantley said. “It is definitely a safety concern.”

According to a release from the Corps of Engineers, a detailed environmental monitoring plan is in place that will track water quality, dissolved oxygen and sediment flowing into the lake.

In past openings, the high level of nutrients in the river fed major algae blooms in the lake, but did little long-lasting damage to ecosystems. In fact, past spillway openings have been credited for repairing damage done to the lake’s bottom by shell dredging before it was banned in 1989.

The high water has prompted the corps to enforce a ban on all digging and construction projects occurring within 1,500 feet of the levee. The ban is in affect for all three river parishes, as well as other surrounding parishes along the river. The corps is also performing daily inspections of area levees to guard against scouring or sand boils that could harm the integrity of the levees.