Everything about Lake Pontchartrain totally explained
Lake Pontchartrain (in English;
Lac Pontchartrain, in
French) is a
brackish lake located in southeastern
Louisiana. It is the second largest
salt-water lake in the
United States, after the
Great Salt Lake in
Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana.
It covers an area of 630 square miles (1630 square km) with an average depth of 12 to 14 feet (about 4 meters). Some shipping channels are kept deeper through
dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about 40 miles (64 km) wide and 24 miles (39 km) from south to north.
The south shore forms the northern boundary of the city of
New Orleans, and its two largest suburbs
Metairie and
Kenner. On the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain is an area called The North Shore which contains some of the metropolitan area's wealthiest suburbs. The largest are the cities of
Mandeville,
Covington,
Madisonville and
Slidell.
Namesake
Lake Pontchartrain is named after
Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, the
French Minister of the Marine,
chancellor of France and
minister of finance during the reign of France's "Sun King,"
Louis XIV, for whom Louisiana is named.
Description
Lake Pontchartrain isn't a true lake but an
estuary connected to the
Gulf of Mexico via The
Rigolets strait (known locally as "the Rigolets") and
Chef Menteur Pass into
Lake Borgne another large lagoon, and therefore experiences small
tidal changes. It receives fresh water from the
Tangipahoa,
Tchefuncte,
Tickfaw,
Amite, and
Bogue Falaya Rivers, and from
Bayou Lacombe and
Bayou Chinchuba.
Salinity varies from negligible at the northern cusp west of Mandeville up to nearly half the salinity of
seawater at its eastern bulge near
Interstate 10.
Lake Maurepas, a true fresh water lake, connects with Lake Pontchartrain on the west via
Pass Manchac. The
Industrial Canal connects the
Mississippi River with the lake at
New Orleans.
Bonnet Carré Spillway diverts water from the Mississippi into the lake during times of river
flooding.
History
The lake was created 2,600 to 4,000 years ago as the evolving
Mississippi River Delta formed its southern and eastern shorelines with
alluvial deposits. Its
Native American name was
Okwata ("Wide Water"). In
1699,
French explorer
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, renamed it
Pontchartrain after
Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain.
Human habitation of the region began at least 3,500 years ago, but increased rapidly with the arrival of Europeans about 300 years ago. The current population is over 1.5 million. The
United States Geological Survey is monitoring the environmental effects of shoreline
erosion, loss of
wetlands,
pollution from urban areas and agriculture,
saltwater intrusion from artificial waterways,
dredging, basin subsidence and faulting, storms and
sea-level rise, and freshwater diversion from the Mississippi and other rivers.
New Orleans
New Orleans was established at a Native American
portage between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. The lake provides numerous recreational activities for people in New Orleans and is also home to the
Southern Yacht Club. In the
1920s the
Industrial Canal in the eastern part of the city opened, providing a direct navigable water connection, with
locks, between the Mississippi River and the lake. In the same decade, a project dredging new land from the lake shore behind a new concrete floodwall began; this would result in an expansion of the city into the former swamp between Metairie/Gentilly Ridges and the lakefront. The
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway was constructed in the
1950s and
1960s, connecting New Orleans (by way of Metairie) with Mandeville and bisecting the lake in a north-northeast line. At 24 miles (39 km), the Causeway is the longest bridge over a body of water in the world.
Hurricanes
During
hurricanes, a
storm surge can build up in Lake Pontchartrain. Wind pushes water into the lake from the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane approaches from the south, and from there it can spill into New Orleans.
A hurricane in September,
1947 flooded the city, most of which is a few feet/meters below sea level (and sinking). After the storm, hurricane-protection
levees were built along Lake Pontchartrain's south shore to protect the city. When a
storm surge of 10 feet (3 meters) from
Hurricane Betsy left much of the city under water in
1965, the levees encircling the city and outlying
parishes were raised to heights of 14 to 23 feet (4-7 m). Due to cost concerns, the levees were built to protect against only a Category 3 hurricane; however, the levees initially withstood the Category 5 storm surge of
Hurricane Katrina (August 2005), which only slowed to Category 3 winds within hours of landfall (due to a last-minute
eyewall replacement cycle).
Experts using computer modeling at
Louisiana State University subsequent to
Hurricane Katrina have concluded that the levees were never topped but rather faulty design, inadequate construction, or some combination of the two were responsible for the flooding of most of New Orleans: some canal walls leaked underneath because the wall foundations were not deep enough in peat-subsoil to withstand the pressure of higher water.
Funding
Congress failed to fully fund an upgrade requested during the
1990s by the
Army Corps of Engineers, and funding was cut in
2003-04 despite a
2001 study by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency warning that a hurricane in New Orleans was one of the country’s 3 most likely disasters. Raising and reinforcing the levees to resist a Category 5 hurricane might take 25 years to complete. Some estimates place the cost at $25 billion.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina reached Category 5 in
2005, some experts predicted that the levee system might fail completely if the storm passed close to the city. Although Katrina weakened to a Category 3 before making landfall on
August 29 (with only Category 1-2 strength winds in New Orleans on the weaker side of the eye of the hurricane), the outlying
New Orleans East along south Lake Pontchartrain was in the eyewall with winds, preceding the eye, nearly as strong as
Bay St. Louis, MS. Canals near
Chalmette began leaking at 8 am, and some levees/canals, designed to withstand Category 3 storms, suffered multiple breaks the following day (see
Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans), flooding 80% of the city.
The walls of the
Industrial Canal were breached by
storm surge via the
Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, while the
17th Street Canal and
London Avenue Canal experienced catastrophic breaches, even though water levels never topped their flood walls.
Louisiana State University experts presented evidence that some of these structures might have had design flaws or faulty construction.
There are indications that the soft earth and
peat underlying canal walls may have given way. In the weeks before Katrina, tests of
salinity in
seepage pools near canals showed them to be lake water, not
fresh water from broken mains. The 5.5 mile (9 km) long
I-10 Twin Span Bridge heading northeast between New Orleans and Slidell was destroyed. The shorter
Fort Pike Bridge crossing the outlet to Lake Borgne remained intact.
Much of the northern sector of the suburban areas of Metairie and Kenner was flooded with up to 2-3 feet of water. In this area, flooding wasn't the result of levee overtopping, but was due to a decision by the governmental administration of Jefferson Parish to abandon the levee-aligned drainage pumping stations. This resulted in the reverse flow of lake water through the pumping stations into drainage canals which subsequently overflowed, causing extensive flooding of the area between 1-10 and the lakefront. When the pump operators were returned to their stations, water was drained out of Metairie and Kenner in less than a day, in some cases, only a few hours.
On
September 5, 2005, the Army Corps of Engineers started to fix levee breaches by dropping huge sandbags from
Chinook helicopters. The London Avenue Canal and Industrial Canal were blocked at the lake as permanent repairs started. On
September 6, the Corps began pumping flood water back into the lake after seven days in the streets of New Orleans. Because it was fouled with dead animals, sewage,
heavy metals,
petrochemicals, and other dangerous substances, the Army Corps worked with the
US EPA and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) to avoid major contamination and
eutrophication of the lake.
Aerial photography suggests that 25 billion gallons (95 bn liters) of water covered New Orleans as of
September 2, which equals about 2% of Lake Pontchartrain's volume. Due to a lack of electricity, the city was unable to treat the water before pumping it into the lake. It is unclear how long the
pollution will persist and what its environmental damage to the lake will be, or the hazards from the
mold and contaminated mud remaining in the city.
On
September 24, 2005,
Hurricane Rita didn't breach the temporary repairs in the main part of the city, but the repair on the Industrial Canal wall in the lower 9th ward was breached, allowing about 2 feet of water back into that neighborhood.
In popular culture
- The traditional song "On the Banks of the Pontchartrain" has been recorded by such artists as Hank Williams, Nanci Griffith and The Be Good Tanyas.
- "The Lakes of Pontchartrain", a variation on the above traditional song, was arranged and recorded by Irish singer Paul Brady.
- "Pontchartrain" is the title of a song on the album Dreaming Through the Noise by Vienna Teng.
- "Pontchartrain" is the title of a song composed and recorded by Jelly Roll Morton.
- In the 2004 video game, one mission involves a chase across the lake on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.
- The lake is also featured in the 1993 PC game .
- It is featured in the 2003 film The Haunted Mansion, to identify the area's location.
- The lake is mentioned in a verse of "Heart of the Night," American country rockers Poco's ode to New Orleans, from their album Legend.
- In the Jimmy Buffett song, "Breath In, Breathe Out, Move On", Pontchartrain is mentioned twice in reference to flooding and hurricanes.
- Sonny Landreth's song "Soldier of Fortune" mentions the Pontchartrain.
- George Strait mentions the Pontchartrain several times in his song "Adalida."
- The Lost Trailers have a song "Fire On The Pontchartrain."
- Lake Pontchartrain is briefly mentioned in the song "Feels Like Rain", by John Hiatt.
- Lake Pontchartrain is mentioned in the Lucinda Williams song "Lake Charles."
- "Lake Pontchartrain" is a song in the album A Good Life from Joe Grushecky 2006
- "Lake Pontchartrain" is the title of a song by the band Ludo, from their album You're Awful, I Love You. The song describes a man who finds himself by the lake with two of his friends, only to be confronted by a scary figure, spooky voices coming from within the lake, and to witness the lake engulf his friends.
- Sheryl Crow's song Love Is Free mentions the Pontchartrain.
- Aaron Watson mentions Lake Pontchartrain in his song "Heaven Help the Heart."
Notable deaths
Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 crashed into the lake on 25 February, 1964, resulting in the deaths of 51 passengers and 7 crew. Most of the remains of plane and passengers were never found.
September 15, 1978- Six year old, Benjamin Daly died when a private plane he and his parents had chartered crashed in the lake. His parents survived but Benjamin and the pilot perished.
New England Patriots defensive end Marquise Hill was found dead in Lake Pontchartrain on May 28, 2007Further Information
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