In August, 2002, the Atchafalaya Basin Program submitted a report to then-Governor Mike Foster, containing recommendations for the control of water flow through the Basin. The report was the culmination of a long process of investigation, public input, discussion and review by a committee, simply named the “Water in the Basin” Committee.

The goal of the Committee was to evaluate the generic calls for more water in the Atchafalaya Basin, to determine if there were practical rules which could be applied to the decisions concerning amount and timing of increased water flow through the Old River Control Structure by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The results were surprising. There were some users who wanted more water anytime that they could get it, but the consensus was that there were well defined water stages, water temperatures, and times of the year when more water would help, and others when additional water would not help the situation but could actually be detrimental to water quality, cypress growth, and some commercial fishing interests.

The result was published in a 27 page booklet, which i have now scanned and compiled into a PDF document, and uploaded to this site. Feel free to download it and read what the technical and political conclusions were back in 2002. If you read it carefully, i think that you will find guidelines that are still valid today.

To download the report, click here: 2002_WIB_Report

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