CAN THE RIVER BE CONTROLLED?

There are those who say the Mississippi River will change its course, that the two large Louisiana ports of New Orleans and Baton Rouge will be left high and dry, and that Old Man River will spill into the Gulf of Mexico in the Morgan City area.

When will it happen?

Not today, probably not next year; but some year down the road, perhaps in 20, 30 or 40 years.

It is the task of the Army Corps of Engineers to see that it doesn't happen.

The Corps' Waterways Experimental Center at Vicksburg, Miss., is aware of the possibilities.

The Vicksburg center was established in 1929 following one of the nation's greatest disasters -- The Mississippi River flood of 1927 -- to assist the Mississippi River Commission in developing and implementing comprehensive plans for river control in the Lower Mississippi Valley.

The center features a computer mockup of the Mississippi River. Stop No. 4 on mockup represents a 12-mile stretch of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers and a flood-control facility where the Mississippi was diverted from spilling into the Atchafalaya.

Without that control structure, the Mississippi probably would have already changed courses, playing havoc with the land throughout southern Louisiana, said Jim Pogue of the Corps' Memphis District.

More than 15 years ago two Louisiana State University professors issued their opinions that the Atchafalaya River runs more downhill than the Mississippi and represented a shortcut to the ocean.

In fact, during the 1880s, the Atchafalaya route was blocked by a tangle of logs and debris, and when the rubbish was cleared the Mississippi started to move into the Atchafalaya.

In time, 30 percent of the Mississippi waterflow was diverted into the Atchafalaya. Congress decided that the deterioration had to stop and directed the Corps to build a water-control facility south of Simmesport, La., to keep the Mississippi on course.

There have been some anxious moments at the control facility.

During the mid-1970s, a leak developed beneath the facility, again letting Mississippi waters pass into the Atchafalaya. The Corps drilled under the facility and poured concrete to stop the leak.

The Corps, which monitors the happenings on that 12-mile stretch, is confident it keeps the Mississippi on tract.

"The Corps keeps a close watch on that facility," said Pogue.

But there are those who still feel that the Mississippi is eventually going to do what it wants.