If anyone's interested in a more detailed explanation of what the Old River Control Structure does, why it's where it is, and what would happen if it failed," let me suggest this article: <a href=""http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1987/02/23/atchafalaya"">http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1987/02/23/atchafalaya</a> .  If nothing else", it contains the choice phrase, "Southern Louisiana is a very large lump of mountain butter."  (Warning: it was written before Katrina, and parts of it read like dark prophesy in hindsight.),(reply>), Was this reprinted in "The Control of Nature"?