Mighty Mississippi: Numbers
CNHI News Service
200 billion: Dollars spent by federal government on building water-control levee system on Mississippi River from Missouri to Gulf Coast.
1,500: Square miles of coastal wetlands Louisiana has lost since 1930 because sediments from the Mississippi are diverted by levees and dams into the deep Gulf of Mexico.
8,000: Square mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico from polluted sediment dumped there by the Mississippi. The zone can’t support marine life.
1.2 million: Square miles of continental United States that drain into the Mississippi. This is 41 percent of the land area, including all or part of 31 states, making it the third largest watershed in the world.
1541: Year Spanish conquistador Hernando De Soto became the first European explorer known to see the Mississippi.
*Sources: Federal and state natural resource agencies
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