Associated Press - May 13, 2010 7:44 PM ET

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - There's now enough Mississippi River water pouring into Louisiana's wetlands to fill the Superdome once an hour, in hopes of avoiding oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill.

Authorities opened all eight gates at the Bayou Lamoque freshwater diversion in Plaqemines Parish on Thursday. Seven diversion projects, created to rebuild wetlands with silt, now funnel fresh water into wetlands in hope of pushing away oil that might enter them.

Bayou Lamoque spreads into wetlands next to Black Bay and Breton Sound at the rate of 12,500 cubic feet - or 93,500 gallons - every second.

That alone could fill the Superdome in less than three hours. About 34,550 cubic feet of water per second are flowing through the seven projects in St. Charles, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes.

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