Call one month in advance to schedule a tour of the pumping station at Donaldsonville guided by the administrator who will give an informative talk on topics concerning Bayou Lafourche, including:

• The history of Bayou Lafourche as a navigation channel, commerce corridor and former distributary of the Mississippi River.
• The Bayou Lafourche Freshwater District - source of drinking water for 8% of Louisiana's population.
• Bayou Lafourche and coastal restoration efforts.

Lafourche means "the fork" because Bayou Lafourche was once a main fork of the Mississippi River. In fact, it was once the main course of the Mississippi River, about 2000 years ago. By 1903, Bayou Lafourche had greatly decreased in flow and was cut off from the Mississippi River by the construction of a levee at Donaldsonville. This was done as part of a large scale flood control project along the Mississippi River. Without the rush of freshwater from the Mississippi River, Bayou Lafourche quickly became very shallow, narrow and slow moving. The flow of delta-building sediment from the Mississippi River waters down Bayou Lafourche and to the coastal area of Lafourche Parish was also greatly decreased. In 1955, in response to public pressure, a pumping station was built at what was the site of the headwaters of Bayou Lafourche, in Donaldsonville. The introduction of river water into the old bayou bed brought new life to Bayou Lafourche. Today this pumping station pumps 40 billion gallons of fresh water into Bayou Lafourche annually. About 20 billion gallons are used for drinking water, agricultural irrigation and industrial operation.

Bayou Lafourche does carry sediment from the Mississippi River to coastal areas, however, much of the heavier sediment drops out within miles of the pumping station. Furt station. Furthermore, land is now being lost through subsidence and erosion at such a fast rate that the fine sediments currently deposited by Bayou Lafourche are not enough to reverse this trend.

ACTIVITIES:

• Tour the pumping station and then walk across Highway 18 to the outflow area, which is now the actual headwaters of Bayou Lafourche.

• Conduct a turbidity test (see page 83) to determine amount of sediment entering Bayou Lafourche at the out flow area. Conduct a turbidity test along the banks of the Mississippi River near the pumping station. Compare the two and discuss the sediment flow in the Mississippi River compared to that in Bayou Lafourche.

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