Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana)
Pearl River | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | United States |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Neshoba County, Mississippi |
• coordinates | 32°53′56″N 89°00′53″W / 32.89889°N 89.01472°W |
• elevation | 400 feet (120 m) |
Mouth | |
• location | Lake Borgne |
• coordinates | 30°10′46″N 89°31′34″W / 30.17944°N 89.52611°W |
Length | 444 miles (715 km) |
Basin size | 8,760 square miles (22,700 km2) |
The Pearl River is a river in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Louisiana. It forms in Neshoba County, Mississippi from the confluence of Nanih Waiya and Tallahaga creeks,[1] and has a meander length of 444 miles (715 km).[2] The lower part of the river forms part of the boundary between Mississippi and Louisiana.
The river watershed contains large areas of bottomland hardwood swamp and cypress swamp, providing habitat for many species of wildlife, including sturgeon and black bears. As recently as 2008, endangered ivory-billed woodpeckers were reportedly sighted here.[3] The mouth of the river creates important marsh habitat along salinity gradients, which has been the subject of many scientific studies.[4][5] It is considered to be one of the most critical areas of natural habitat remaining in Louisiana.
Mississippi's capital and largest city, Jackson, is located along the upper reaches of the river. Most of the towns along the river, starting with Philadelphia, Mississippi in the north, are within the boundaries of that state.
Tributaries and hydrology
The Yockanookany and Strong rivers are tributaries on the upper section of the river north of Jackson: the Lobutcha, Tuscolameta, and Pelahatchie creeks also feed in as tributaries in this region.[6] In 1924 the Tuscolameta Creek received 24-mile channelization and Yockanookany River received a 36-mile canal, which was completed in 1928.[7]
Northeast of Jackson, the Ross Barnett Reservoir was formed by a 1962 dam. Average annual rainfall is about 52 inches in the upper third of the basin, and below Jackson the basin rainfall increases to 64 inches or more, contributing to the greater discharge of the Bogue Chitto as noted below.[8]
The Bogue Chitto River is a major tributary on the lower section. The Bogue Chitto's mean low-water discharge to the lower river is nearly six times that of the mean low-water discharge of the Pearl River at Jackson, Mississippi, according to a 1936 government report of the Mississippi Planning Commission.[9] West of Picayune, about 50 miles (80 km) above the mouth, the river forks.[10]
The East Pearl River empties into
Pearl River provides the receiving waters for the Savanna Street Sewage Treatment Plant in Jackson, Mississippi.[13] which lies about 180 miles (290 km) from the mouth of the river.
Pearl River towns
The following towns (in order, north to south) developed on or near the Pearl River:
- Philadelphia, Mississippi
- Pearl River, Mississippi - named after the river.
- Carthage, Mississippi
- Jackson, Mississippi
- Flowood, Mississippi
- Pearl, Mississippi - named after the river.
- Georgetown, Mississippi
- Rockport, Mississippi
- Monticello, Mississippi
- Columbia, Mississippi
- Bogalusa, Louisiana
- Picayune, Mississippi
- Pearlington, Mississippi - named after the river.
- Pearl River, Louisiana - named after the river.
The lower river was navigable from Brashear's Stand on the Natchez Trace to the mouth.
Building dams, canals, levees and water control structures is known to have highly negative effects on wetlands and the ecological services they provide.[21][22] Increasingly, these artificial structures are being removed to allow natural river activities to resume.[23] The Pascagoula River is one of the few remaining southern rivers with natural water regimes, and is a potential model for restoring the Pearl River floodplain. At the Bogalusa, Louisiana gauge the river was recorded in 1983 and 1987 as delivering nearly 3.5 million metric tons and 2.5 million metric tons of sediment respectively.[24]
Hurricane effects
Hurricanes are a natural form of disturbance that shapes rivers and watersheds on the Gulf Coast, and has done so for thousands of years.
See also
- List of rivers of Louisiana
- List of rivers of Mississippi
- 1979 Easter flood
- South Atlantic-Gulf Water Resource Region
References
- ^ "Topography & History". Pearl River Basin Development District. Archived from the original on 2010-01-23. Retrieved 2006-04-21.
- ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed June 13, 2011
- PMID 28194452.
- S2CID 43428513.
- JSTOR 3545638.
- ^ Speer, Paul R. et al. (1949). "Low-Flow Characteristics of streams in the Mississippi Embayment to Southern Arkansas, Northern Louisiana and Northeastern Texas." Geological Survey Professional Paper 448-G. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. p. I-27. Google Books website
- ^ Dunbar, J.B. and Coulters, F.J. (1988). Geomorphic investigation of the Shoccoe Dam Project Area / (Record no. 14869). Vicksburg, Miss.: Geotechnical Laboratory, U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, p. 51.
- ^ United States Department of the Interior. Water Resources Division. U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with Mobile District. Corps of Engineers. Department of the Army. (1967) Joseph W. Lang. "Geohydrologic Summary of the Pearl River Basin". p. 11.
- ^ Drainage Basin and Waterways Reports, 1936-1938. Mississippi Planning Commission. Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Series 2488 Box 19948. "Report on the Pearl River Drainage Basin". Page.1.
- ^ "The Pearl River Basin". USGS – The Rivers of Mississippi. Retrieved 2006-04-21.
- ^ "Conservation Habitats and Species Assessments" (PDF). Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 26, 2007. Retrieved 2006-04-21.
- ^ "Title 33, Chapter 32, § 1804. Inland and intracoastal waterways of the United States". U.S. Code Collection, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. Retrieved 2006-04-24.
- ^ Savanna Street Wastewater Treatment Plant, Risk Management Plan, Executive Summary - 2012. Accessed July 19, 2014
- ^ Yancey M. Quinn, Jr. "Jackson's Military Road". 41. (November 1979). Journal of Mississippi History. p. 340.
- ^ The American Annual Register for the years 1827-1829. (1830). New York: E. & G.W. Blunt. p. 593.
- ^ State of Mississippi. (1844). Laws of the State of Mississippi. Jackson: C.M. Price and S. Rohrer. pp. 371-2 Retrieved 27 January 2016. Google Books website
- ^ United States. Dept. of Commerce. Bureau of Navigation. (1904). Annual Report of the Commissioner of Navigation. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. p.337
- ^ "State of Mississippi v. U.S. (1990)". Government Briefs, Office of the Solicitor General, U.S. Dept. of Justice. Retrieved 2006-04-24.
- ^ "Project #1003 - Fisheries Habitat Restoration in the Pearl River". Gulf of Mexico Foundation. Archived from the original on 2005-02-15. Retrieved 2006-04-24.
- ^ "Comprehensive Habitat Management Plan for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin" (PDF). Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. 2006-02-26. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-03-16. Retrieved 2006-04-24.
- ^ Middleton, B. A. (ed.) (2002). Flood Pulsing in Wetlands: Restoring the Natural Hydrological Balance. Wiley, New York.
- ^ Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. 978-0-521-51940-3
- ^ Hughes, F.M.R. (ed.). 2003. The Flooded Forest: Guidance for policy makers and river managers in Europe on the restoration of floodplain forests. FLOBAR2, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. 96 p.
- ^ United States Geological Survey. Suspended-Sediment Database Daily Values of Suspended Sediment and Ancillary Data. Introduction of Sediment Data Histograms. http://co.water.usgs.gov/sediment/images/la1.gif
- .
- ^ Conner, W. H., Day, J. W., Jr., Baumann, R. H., and Randall, J. M. (1989). Influence of hurricanes on coastal ecosystems along the northern Gulf of Mexico. Wetlands Ecology and Management, 1, 45–56.
- ^ "West Pearl being cleared of debris". New Orleans Times-Picayune. 14 December 2005. Retrieved 2006-04-24.
- ISBN 978-0-521-51940-3
Further reading
- Keddy, P.A. 2008. Water, Earth, Fire: Louisiana’s Natural Heritage. Xlibris, Philadelphia. 229 p. Figure 6.1. ISBN 978-1-4363-6234-4</ref>(Self-published)
External links
- U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Pearl River
- Heinrich, P. V., 2005, Contrasting Pleistocene and Holocene Fluvial Systems of the Lower Pearl River, Louisiana and Mississippi, USA. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 37, No. 2, p. 41.
- Heinrich, P. V., 2006, Pleistocene and Holocene Fluvial Systems of the Lower Pearl River, Mississippi and Louisiana, USA. Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions. vol. 56, pp. 267–278. (Contains geologic map of Lower Pearl River Valley)
- Heinrich, P. V., R. P. McCulloh, and J. Snead, 2007, Bogalusa 30 x 60 minute geologic quadrangle. Louisiana Geological Survey, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- Heinrich, P. V., R. P. McCulloh, and J. Snead, 2004, Gulfport 30 x 60 minute geologic quadrangle. Louisiana Geological Survey, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.