Tagged: mississippi river

There's plenty of mud flowing down the Mississippi River and getting washed out into the Gulf of Mexico every day. Now, in a bid to save the threatened delta, the Army Corps of Engineers says it wants to take mud dredged from the shipping channels to build up fragile wetlands.

After more than a decade of coordinating coastal concerns of five Gulf states, the America’s Wetland Foundation is looking north. The group will be heading as far north as Minnesota to study how best to use the Mississippi River that feeds the Delta.

Authorities say there are no signs of shoreline or wildlife being affected by the discharge of fuel oil from a tanker on the Mississippi River.

The Coast Guard said the discharge from a ballast pipe on the tanker Overseas Beryl was reported shortly after 10 p.m. Monday and it was plugged around 4 a.m. Tuesday.

Cleanup has begun at the site downriver from New Orleans. The amount of fuel oil spilled remained unclear at midmorning.

A new study released at the Port of New Orleans says sediment in the Mississippi River is building up at rates that could severely clog commerce. Eileen Fleming reports maritime interests say more dredging is essential to the U.S. economy.