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A friend and I are having a debate whether a landowner of land adjacent to a public waterway (which allows public access to a popular nearby oxbow when the public waterway is above a certain stage level, but below flood stage) can make improvements to his land that effectively cut off river access to the lake until the river rises nearly 6 feet higher than what used to be necessary to access the lake. For example, you can currently access the lake when the river reached 16', but if the owner builds a road, the new road bed cuts off access when the river is between 16' and 22'.

If a landowner wanted to do such a thing, would he have to get governmental authorization, or could he do it without any sort of permits?

What would be the repercussions if he did not obtain the necessary governmental authorization prior to building the road?

any thoughts?

http://www.deq.state.ms.us/mdeq.nsf/pag ... enDocument

It's hard to tell whether or not the particular chute in question is within the boundaries of the River on this map. Regardless, I know some river rats that hang out on an adjacent sandbar that will be pissed come summertime. A quick call to MDEQ could probably give you the answer. I'd think that the landowner would make that call before going through considerable expense to build a road that may later have to be removed. Will be interesting to see the eventual outcome.

Get a 404 permit and go to work, public be damned! The way I see it, a landowner has no obligation to provide access to public waters.

Been done before.....just saying.

Is this hypothetical crossing right at the mouth of the hypothetical chute?

An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water that forms when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water.

In this "hypothetical" situation, the "chute" being dammed up is actually, i believe, an old, still functtioning, channel of the largest river in the country. A hypothetical location for this crossing would be approxiamtely 32 11 23.18N 91 00 14.75W
At this location there is a road crossing, always has been, but it went under water at 15" on the gage and boats could access the old channel and the "oxbow" lake that is subsequently connected to the old channel, at approxiamtely 17' on the gage.

So hypothetically, could a man raise this crossing to say 36' or 37' on the gage without anything. What if he put another crossing on the South end of the Old Channel, that would completely cut off public access to the entire stretch of the old channle and the "oxbow" lake.

Should a man be allowed to do this? With or without the proper "Permits" should someone be allowed to BLOCK, not provide (JaMak), public access??

I dont know the legality of the situation but if the said land owner is going to "build" a road near the mouth of a large channel to a large oxbow he better put some serious work into it.... cause when river rises to lets say just a few feet above the said road and the river begins to drop at 2 feet a day, well BYEBYE road

Now we know why hunters are looked down upon by many. Why 'block' access? Same people that take actions like this are usually the first to cry 'foul' when it comes back around to them.

Whiskey drink, late night, and Kinepack.....