Sediment transport in a Mississippi River distributary — Bayou Lafourche, Louisiana

The installation of a pumping plant at Donaldsonville, La., in 1955 to solve a
water-supply problem for the residents along Bayou Lafourche created a sedimentation problem in the bayou. Prior to 1904, when the bayou functioned as a distributary, floodflows periodically scoured the sediment deposited in the channel at lower stages. Nearly constant flows maintained by the pumping plant result in limited transport capacity to move the sediment imposed on the channel.