Salt water creeps toward New Orleans up Mississippi River

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Associated Pres

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Army Corps of Engineers says the Mississippi River is so low and slow that salt water is creeping farther than usual along the bottom toward New Orleans and threatening drinking water. Officials plan an underwater levee to block the heavier salt water before it can reach two of the four treatment plants in Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans. The parish says salt may already affect the taste and smell of drinking water along the river’s lowest stretch but is not a health hazard. The Corps says the structure called a sill might wind up tall enough to interfere with the extra-large ships the river was recently dredged to accommodate.