3 Gulf Coast states get $88 million for fisheries flooding

 Three Gulf Coast states are getting more than $88 million in fisheries disaster funds for dam from last year’s flooding, which included an unprecedented two openings of a spillway west of New Orleans.

“se funds will help industries and individuals recover from this disaster, and build resilience for future," U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who declared a

total includes $58.3 million for Louisiana, $21.3 million for Mississippi and $8.6 million for Alabama, Republican U.S. Rep. Garrett Graves of Louisiana said in a separate statement.

“After waiting an entire year, we finally have a chance to right some of wrongs caused by last year’s high river event," Graves said. “South Louisianans kw disaster process all too well and for years y have been victimized by cumbersome bureaucracy.”

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spillway diverts polluted river water into brackish Lake Pontchartrain, which drains into Mississippi Sound. fresh water

“se funds are welcome news for many fishermen who suffered through last year’s unprecedented opening of Bonnet Carré Spillway, but our state deserves a long-term solution to disasters like se," U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, said in a news release.

He and U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, also a Republican, said y are working to change way federal fisheries disasters are evaluated and approved.

"I am also pushing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to consider alternatives to opening Bonnet Carré Spillway so that we can minimize risk of se disasters in future,” Wicker said.

Mississippi has been pushing to have Morganza Floodway used as an alternative to Bonnet Carré, which was created to protect New Orleans' levees from dam caused by rushing water. floodway, which starts west of Baton Rouge in Pointe Coupee Parish, sends water into farmland and campsites in Atchafalaya Basin if floods threaten Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Im Source: Representative/Pixabay