NEW ORLEANS: Just a year after the BP oil spill crippled Louisiana's oyster industry, the fishermen face a new problem. Freshwater is set to be diverted from the mighty Mississippi River into the salty waters where the shellfish grow, potentially killing them. To protect people, homes and businesses along the big river, the Army Corps of Engineers plans to open at least one spillway, sending water out of the river. The tactic may ease the pressure on levees, but it will almost certainly kill the shellfish, too. Fourth-generation oysterman Shane Bagala spent months skimming oil to make money. Earlier this week, though, he embarked on his first oyster run, returning with a healthy catch. But he became worried when he heard the corps was considering opening a spillway. “I'm very concerned because I'm just getting back to work now for the first time since the oil spill. Now it looks like something else might be threatening us,” said Bagala, who has fished for oysters for 22 years. The corps plans Monday to open the Bonnet Carre Spillway, built about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest New Orleans in response to the great flood of 1927. The spillway diverts river water to brackish Lake Pontchartrain, and from there east into the fertile fishing and oyster grounds of Lake Borgne and the Mississippi Sound, and ultimately the Gulf. It's been opened nine times since 1937, most recently in spring 2008, when the river was swollen by heavy rains in the Mississippi Valley. The corps is also considering opening the Morganza Spillway, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) northwest of Baton Rouge. It diverts river water into the Atchafalaya Basin. It hasn't been opened since 1973. Mike Voisin, an owner of an oyster processing and sales business southwest of New Orleans, said Morganza's opening would devastate oyster harvesting grounds that largely avoided damage from the oil spill.
