§702a–11 Morganza Floodway; Eudora Floodway

Summary

The United States, acting through the Chief of Engineers, may buy the easements and rights it needs and build the Morganza floodway and the Eudora floodway. The Chief can change their designs and how water enters them. The Eudora intake must have an automatic masonry weir set so it is not overtopped except when the Vicksburg gage reads 51 feet or more. A fuseplug levee loop can be built behind that sill to keep water out until river flow is too high, with at least 3 feet of freeboard. That fuseplug can be intentionally breached if the Chief of Engineers decides it is needed to protect the main river levee. Acquisition of land and rights is limited to the floodways and the northward extension of Eudora. Guide line levees for Eudora may be extended south toward Old River, and the Eudora floodway may be placed near Eudora where the Chief chooses. While the northward extension is pending, the Riverside fuseplug levee from near Yancopin to near Vau Cluse must be rebuilt to the 1914 grade and the 1928 section. If a back protection levee is built before Eudora, it must connect to the main Mississippi River levee and later to Eudora. The Chief of Engineers may negotiate purchases, options, and condemnations to get lands, flowage rights, easements, and rights-of-way. The United States may acquire flowage easements in the Atchafalaya Basin below the latitude of Krotz Springs for lands not often flooded. The Morganza floodway must not be used until the Wax Lake outlet is operating. Fuseplug levees at the head of the Atchafalaya Basin on the river’s east side must be rebuilt to the 1928 grade and section. If the United States keeps fee title to lands and leases them, 25 percent of lease revenues each fiscal year must be paid to the state where the land sits for county public schools and roads, and shares are divided by area if land crosses state or county lines. All appropriated funds for Morganza and Eudora must be used only for those projects.