Southwest Louisiana River Basin Study: The Calcasieu, Mermentau, and Teche-Vermilion River Basins, Louisiana

Excerpts from the report: The Southwest Louisiana River Basin comprises an area of about 11,836 square miles--about a quarter of the entire State--and is located in the southwestern part of Louisiana with its base along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The Basin is bounded on the north and east by the Red River and West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levees, and on the west by the watershed divide between the Calcasieu and Sabine River Basins. The Study Area is made up of about 11,132 square miles of land and about 704 square miles of surface water. The three major sub-basins in the Study Area and their drainage areas are the Calcasieu - 4,085 square miles, the Mermentau - 3,896 square miles, and the Teche-Vermilion Rivers - 2,014 square miles. In addition, it includes about 1,457 square miles of the Atchafalaya River Basin and about 384 square miles of the Sabine River Basin. The combined drainage area of the Basin amounts to about 25 percent of the area of the State of Louisiana. All or parts of 17 parishes are included in the Basin Study Area. The primary objective of the Study is to facilitate the orderly conservation, development, utilization, and management of the water and related land resources of the Basin. Investigations in the Southwest Louisiana River Basin Study Area were made by the Soil Conservation Service, Forest Service, and Economic Research Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The purposes of the investigations were to: (1) identify water and related land resource problems; (2) prepare a potential plan for water and related land resource development that could be accomplished under USDA programs; (3) prepare agricultural and forestry data for use of cooperating agencies in planning water and related land resource projects under their programs; and (4) compile engineering, economic, and related data that local organizations could use for developing water and related land resources. All investigations were coordinated with investigations of other cooperating agencies.