Wax Lake was a lake in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana that was converted into an outlet channel to divert water from the Atchafalaya River to the Gulf of Mexico.
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The Wax Lake outlet is an artificial channel that was created by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1942 to divert 30 percent of the flow from the Atchafalaya River to the Gulf of Mexico and reduce flood stages at Morgan City, Louisiana.[1] The project design flood flow capacity for the outlet is 440,000 cu ft/s (12,000 m3/s).[2]
The Wax Lake Delta is a river delta in Louisiana that was formed by rapid deposition of sediment following the creation of a canal through Wax Lake off of the Atchafalaya River in 1942.[3] It is located roughly 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Morgan City[3] adjacent to the Atchafalaya delta.
It receives 34 million tons of sediment per year.[4] In the 64 years between 1941 and 2005, Wax Lake was completely filled with sediment, and the delta prograded approximately 8 km into the sea.[4]
Because it was entirely created during an observable time-period and, other than the creation of the canal, was not altered by humans, it has often been in studies of deltaic formation.[3] In the time since Hurricane Katrina, it has also served and as a model for delta regrowth in the Mississippi River Delta region in order to restore habitat and protect against storm surge.[3][4]