Press Room

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2/21/07 The Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries (LDWF) is sponsoring a derelict trap removal program. In the Lake Pontchartrain estuary, the LDWF intends to prohibit the use of crab traps for a 10-day period from 6 a.m., Feb. 24, 2007 through 6 a.m. March 5, 2007 within that portion of Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Tammany Parishes. Volunteers are needed to assist the LDWF with this project. It is an excellent opportunity for everyone who enjoys our coastal waters to work together and to help make a difference. All water-based user groups, including recreational anglers, boaters, waterfowl hunters, and commercial and recreational shrimp and crab fishermen, are encouraged to participate in the trap cleanup. Several types of boats are needed: small shallow-draft boats and air boats to retrieve traps, and larger mother vessels (such as commercial crab boats) to collect traps from smaller boats. For more information, contact Vince Guillory (Project Leader) at (985) 594-4139 or vguillory@wlf.louisiana.gov. The project website (with closure map) is www.derelictcrabtrap.net.

Big Branch National Wildlife Refuge Boat Launch: The boat ramp in Lacombe on Lake Rd.

The Dock: Located in Slidell at 118 Harborview Ct.

Lake Catherine Marina: Located on US HWY 90 in Orleans 2 miles west of the Rigolets Bridge.

Bonnabel Ramp: Located at the end of Bonnabel Blvd. where it meets Lake Pontchartrain

10/15/06 We Have a Lease!! The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) has signed a lease with the U.S. Coast Guard to restore the historic New Canal Lighthouse at West End.  LPBF is dedicated to the reconstruction and preservation of the New Canal Lighthouse and its surrounding facilities. This is the future site of The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation New Canal Lighthouse Education Center, which will offer the public environmental and historical programs that focus on the ecology of the Pontchartrain Basin and the history of the New Canal Lighthouse.

8/1/06 LPBF Beach Sweep presented by Toyota: volunteer to clean our city's streets as part of the Ocean Conservancy's international coastal clean up help bring back metro New Orleans and protect the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. Click here for more info

7/15/06 Ashley Marie Kelly Swim Safety Program
WHEN: Monday July 24 – Friday, July 28, 2005
WHERE: Tulane University Reily Center Located on the McAlister Extension off Willow St. in New Orleans
WHO: Anyone age of 5 and over
WHAT: a FREE week of 45 minute classes teaching water safety, litter awareness, and American Red Cross swimming lessons.
REGISTRATION: begins July 5th. Call 504-836-2238, give your name, contact phone number, age of participant. Lessons at 9am, 10am, 11am & 12pm.
TO BRING: Come in a swimsuit and bring a towel. This Swim Safety Day and lessons are a partnership event sponsored by the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, the American Red Cross, Tulane University, and The Ashley Marie Kelly Foundation. Call JoAnn at Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (836-2238) for more information.

2/13/06 LPBF Launches Coastal Outreach Campaign The Louisiana coastline is disappearing at a faster rate than any other piece of real estate on the globe. During hurricanes like Camille and Betsy, our coast acted as a buffer to the destructive power of storms. Now, however that buffer is all but gone. The result is the most devastating environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, Hurricane Katrina. LPBF has developed a program to combat the erosion of our coast while providing hurricane protection. Read More . . .

12/20/05 LPBF currently has a license with the US Coast Guard to assess the damages to New Canal Lighthous and develop a scope of work for restoration. LPBF submitted the first phase of the scope of work for stabilization, shoring, and protection of the Lighthouse to the US Coast Guard on December 9th. The USCG is reviewing the scope of work and will use it to create the second license for LPBF to actually do the work. 

11/23/05 LPBF’s Restoration Roadmap to Recovery of Pontchartrain’s Habitats "The Comprehensive Habitat Management Plan for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin” Comments or questions should be sent to: Att: Dr. John A. Lopez, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, P.O BOX 6965 Metairie, LA 70009-6965 Or email Johnlopez@pobox.com

11/15/05 Water quality monitoring in response to Hurricane Katrina (.zip, .pdf)

10/26/05 Hurricane Flood Protection for Metro New Orleans and the MRGO

10/18/05 Impacts To New Basin Canal Lighthouse (.pdf) -American Lighthouse Foundation Concerned about New Canal

10/13/05 Lake Recovering Quicker than Expected//Dolphins Sighted

9/19/05 Initial Summary of Hurricane Katrina's Impacts on the Pontchartrain Basin

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LAKE RECOVERING QUICKER THAN EXPECTED//DOLPHINS SIGHTED
10/13/05

Recent sampling data indicates that Lake Pontchartrain’s water quality is improving rapidly. Data from Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) sampling confirms testing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Louisiana Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ ) investigating the possibly of contaminated flood waters from Hurricane Katrina adversely impacting Lake Pontchartrain.

Following the storm, flood waters covered about 120 square miles of metro New Orleans alone. These flood waters picked up sewage, oil and gas, household chemicals, paints, decomposing materials, and other contaminants. To drain New Orleans, it was necessary to discharge the contaminated water into Lake Pontchartrain. Initial testing showed high bacteria levels and low dissolved oxygen along the lake’s south and north shorelines.

Weekly LPBF sampling was reinitiated at 8 historic recreational sites in late September. Results indicate that 75% of the samples are again meeting primary recreation (swimming) criteria. Sampling sites include: Pontchartrain Beach and Old Beach (New Orleans), Bonnabel (Metairie), Laketown (Kenner), Northshore Beach (Slidell), Bayou Castine (Mandeville), Tchefuncte River (Madisonville), and Bogue Falaya Park (Covington). Dissolved oxygen levels also appear to have recovered. Salinities however remain twice as high as normal. LPBF water quality reports are available each Friday on the SAVEOURLAKE.org website. The next sampling results will be available on Friday, October 14.

“We knew Pontchartrain would heal itself” said Carlton Dufrechou, LPBF Executive Director. “The rate of recovery of the lake is a welcomed surprise. 8 dolphins sighted near Mandeville on October 11. If the big critters are back, the lake is definitely coming back.”

Initial Summary of Hurricane Katrina's Impacts on the Pontchartrain Basin Ecosystem
September 19, 2005

Like all of us in southeast Louisiana, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) and its staff were impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Although the LPBF office is not useable currently, we continue to operate.
Monitoring has been expanded.  Technical assistance is being provided to restart wastewater treatment facilities throughout the Basin.  We are making an inventory of impacts to our coast.  We intend to provide Basin updates biweekly.  We hope to return to our office by mid October.

Initial impacts of Hurricane Katrina were felt in the Pontchartrain Basin by early afternoon on Sunday, August 28.  For the next 24 hours, this huge, Category 4, hurricane ravaged the Pontchartrain Basin and adjoining Gulf Coast.  This natural disaster left impacts that will be historic.  In the Pontchartrain Basin alone, at least one million citizens have been displaced from their homes and places of work.  An additional half million were impacted by damages to property.  Winds were clocked at 175 MPH on Lake Pontchartrain’s northeast shore in Slidell.  Storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain was 10 to 14 feet.  Storm surge about 10 miles east of downtown New Orleans at the junction of the Gulf Intra coastal Waterway
(GIWW) and Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) was 15 to 20 feet. Wind driven waves added 10 or more feet to these storm surges.  The photograph below shows storm surge flooding near the junction of the GIWW and the MRGO at Paris Road Bridge during Hurricane Katrina.

Entire communities were destroyed; transportation, water supply, sewerage, and power infrastructure demolished or significantly damaged; even landmasses disappeared.  Flooding was of biblical proportions.  At one time flood waters covered about120 square miles of metro New Orleans alone. These flood waters consist of sewage, oil and gas, countless chemicals, and decomposing materials of all types.   These highly contaminated waters are being discharged into Lake Pontchartrain.  This is a necessity to drain the flood waters from New Orleans.  Impacts to Lake Pontchartrain’s near shore water quality and habitats couldbe severe.  Post storm satellite imagery suggest that 20 plus square miles of Pontchartrain’s coastal wetlands may have been destroyed by Katrina in a 24 hour period.  This is equivalent to the total average wetland loss for the entire Louisiana coast during one year.    This event has been catastrophic for the Pontchartrain Basin and its citizens.

Even with Katrina’s impacts, Lake Pontchartrain is much healthier today than it was before Pontchartrain’s restoration began 15 years ago .  The volume of contaminated water being discharged into Pontchartrain is tremendous yet the vast majority of the lake’s water remains healthy.  In the worse case, the contaminated discharges by volume should displace less than 10% of Lake Pontchartrain’s waters.  Water quality should begin to improve as discharges cease.  The Lake and the Pontchartrain Basin are living/natural entities.
They will recover.  The LPBF intends to do everything in its power to speed that process along.