What feeds into Lake Pontchartrain?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Does anyone know what the water supply to the lake is? I'm speaking in normal terms not now with the added water from the hurricane.

[juajen]

1. I believe it's saline, so it must come from the ocean, right?

N/T

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. It's brakish so it's a little bit of both

Salt and fresh water feeds

[tedoll78]

2. Normally, the gulf & tributaries of various small rivers.

.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. So basically when the water table reaches the level of the levee breach

It will continue to leach out as the lake continues to rise or has it crested and will not refill once it drains down to the breach level?

Anther question; do we know how deep these breaches are or just how long they are? are the the uppermost tops of the levee or are the majority of entire portions?

[tedoll78]

7. Water from the Lake will run downhill as long as it can.

(1) If the water level within the city equals that of the lake, everything will level-off and the flow will stop.

(2) Or, if the water level within the lake drops to the level of the breach, the flow will stop. Another illustration:

We haven't been told how deep the breaches are; CNN seems to indicate that the Army Corp of Engineers is waiting for sunrise for visual assessment. If it's a deep breach, the first scenario I offer will be the one that transpires (unless the breach is miraculously pulgged).

[spuddonna]

5. Some info from USGS...

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/of98-805/lessons/chpt1/#water
"Another name for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin is the Lake Pontchartrain Watershed... The watershed drains the land in 16 parishes in Louisiana and 4 counties in Mississippi."

Where Does the Water in the Watershed Come From?
(I'm just listing the main points here from the website above...)
"Precipitation... Groundwater... Land Drainage... Waterbodies...
Human use...Gulf of Mexico"

So, it looks like a lot of sources are feeding it, including at least two other lakes - Lake Borgne and Lake Maurepas.

USGS has a good pic here http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2002/of02-206/biology/pg71fig1.html

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. Thank you very much

That answered all of my questions. They may not have been the answers I was hoping for, but so is life.

[spuddonna]

8. No problem... I was wondering what the answer was myself...

Kinda wished I hadn't looked. :( I thought it was a closed lake, a relatively 'fixed' amount of water...

I have no idea if the flooding will really ever stop if there's no levee there to hold it back since it looks like the lake is a low spot; a gathering place for water from all over that area...