User:Profmoriarty206/Bohemia Spillway

The Bohemia Spillway is a flood control structure in the Mississippi River Delta. Located in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana - about 50 miles southeast of New Orleans - it allows floodwaters from the Mississippi River to flow into Bayou Lamoque through 33,000 acres of wildlife rich estuaries and wetlands, then ultimately into the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1924, the Louisiana state legislature authorized the Orleans Levee Board to acquire 33,000 acres (130 km²) of land on the east bank of the Mississippi River about 50 miles (80 km) south of New Orleans in order to build the Bohemia Spillway between the River and the Gulf of Mexico. (1924 La. Acts 99). Approximately half of this land was public property transferred from the state; the other half was either expropriated or purchased under threat of expropriation from private owners according to a legal finding. (1928 La. Acts 246; 1942 La. Acts 311).

As a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East is studying the feasibility of activating the Bohemia Spillway in order to mitigate potential oil spill damage by releasing millions of gallons of freshwater into the rich ecosystems of the marshes east of the Mississippi River.

See Also:

Bonnet Carre Spillway

Morganza Spillway