Saltwater creeping up the Mississippi River could last months

AccuWeather

Louisiana officials say barges, desalination machines and pipelines will be needed to combat the saltwater intrusion creeping up the Mississippi River.

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00:00 Less water, more river banks and sandbars.

00:03 The mighty Mississippi River is running low and slow from Memphis, Tennessee to Greenville, Mississippi.

00:10 The first time ever that this has happened like this back to back.

00:13 For the second fall in a row, those low and slow river levels are allowing saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico to inch up the Mississippi River.

00:22 Not like a hurricane or a tropical storm where the storm comes through, it does its damage.

00:27 This is like the blob kind of creeping up the river.

00:31 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started barging in loads of river water from up north,

00:37 down to treatment facilities in Plaquemines Parish, dealing with high salinity levels.

00:42 The need for water barges could grow dramatically as the saltwater wedge inches closer to New Orleans.

00:50 The max capacity for the water treatment plants that have requested assistance is about 35 million gallons per day of fresh water.

00:57 Work is also underway to expand a sill or underwater barrier to slow the saltwater wedge.

01:04 Leaders say they're doing everything they can to minimize impacts to drinking water supplies,

01:10 irrigation for farmers and to prevent damage to appliances and infrastructure.

01:16 There's really no need to panic. Our water is safe.

01:20 There is not a water shortage in our country.

01:23 We're going to have drinking water, bottled water, in our grocery stores.

01:28 Officials say they're spending millions on barges, bottled water and pipeline projects.

01:35 What they need is substantial rain in the Mississippi Valley that has faced drought conditions for months.

01:42 For AccuWeather, I'm Bill Waddell.

01:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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