Other "authorities"?

And I don't mean those in charge of you name it.

What I mean is, could there have been other flood control / utility authorities, like the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), accomplishing similar objectives? In Inside U. S. A., John Gunther mentioned a proposed Ohio Valley Authority--which, if it had been in place prior to 1937, might have mitigated the flood that damaged much of Cincinnati. I wonder if that and other similar agencies (Missouri; Connecticut; Colorado) had been chartered, what would be the effects on the landscape and the electric grid, for starters? Could Oak Ridge have been built elsewhere--say, near Penns Grove, NJ, had there been a Delaware Valley Authority?
 
And I think more than half the water volume of the Mississippi actually goes down the Atchafalaya starting the lower third of Louisiana. And I think the river is basically chomping at the bits and one good flood away from changing to the Atchafalaya in a much bigger way.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...to-the-mississippi-river-an-explainer/239058/

The flow division is more like 30-70 between the Atchafalaya and the current channel. And it's more than chomping at the bit. It's actively being chained in place. The Corps of Engineers operates a control system to maintain the current flows down the two rivers, and without the Corps' structure, the river would have changed to direct virtually the whole flow down the Atchafalaya. And the longer the system is maintained the more powerful the pull of the Atchafalaya is, because its bed keeps being eroded out as a steeper and shorter path to the sea. So one ordinary flood isn't enough to breach the Corps' containment system, but a truly massive one might. And that's bad for Louisiana.
 
There were increasingly organized efforts by the states in the early 20th Century. The floods of 1925 & 1927 showed how inadaquate & poorly engineered those efforts were. This was not for lack of funds, levee construction had been widespread. Rather the problem lay in the delusion that floods could be confined to the river channels, that flood plains could be kept dry by piling up dirt on the river banks.
 
...but a truly massive one might. And that's bad for Louisiana.

Any estimates on the economic disruption & capitol cost of relocating the port services from the New Orleans area to the Atchafalaya channel & sea outlet?
 
And I don't mean those in charge of you name it.

What I mean is, could there have been other flood control / utility authorities, like the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), accomplishing similar objectives? In Inside U. S. A., John Gunther mentioned a proposed Ohio Valley Authority--which, if it had been in place prior to 1937, might have mitigated the flood that damaged much of Cincinnati. I wonder if that and other similar agencies (Missouri; Connecticut; Colorado) had been chartered, what would be the effects on the landscape and the electric grid, for starters? Could Oak Ridge have been built elsewhere--say, near Penns Grove, NJ, had there been a Delaware Valley Authority?

I remember seeing in some old magazine a post WWII proposal for a Missouri Valley Authority, of similar scope as the TVA. It could be useful finding out why this was aborted.
 
Top