Thursday, August 16, 2007

Bayou Style Madness

From the Daily Comet:

By Nikki Buskey

HOUMA - There’s water everywhere, but none is safe to swim in, according to the state Department of Health and Hospitals.

As the state Department of Environmental Quality launched its Clean Waters project in Bayou Lafourche Monday, targeting private septic systems that officials fear are leaking human waste into the bayou, the Department of Health and Hospitals raised another red flag about bacterial levels on Grand Isle’s beaches.

Officials said Bayou Lafourche has higher bacteria levels than any body of water in the state. The waterway provides drinking water for most of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes.

Chemicals are used to make it safe for drinking, but it’s not safe for swimming.


My question: are the chemicals safe for drinking? Bayou Lafourche is my source for drinking water. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is not known for stringently enforcing regulations, so the condition of the water supply must be seriously bad for them to be paying attention.

With little planning or oversight, folks were allowed to build along Bayou Lafourche. Who knows if the septic tanks do the job of containing sewage from the buildings? Some of the older structures may not even have septic tanks, and their plumbing may go directly into the bayou.

Back to the beach at Grand Isle, which is a barrier island at the mouth of Bayou Lafourche.

But when asked what could be causing high levels of human- and animal-waste bacteria off Louisiana beaches, Johannessen said the agency’s job is to report the findings, not investigate them.

“We don’t have the authority to find out where the bacteria is coming from,” Johannessen said. “There are theories out there, but they’re only theories.”


It boggles the mind. Catch 22-ish, don't you think? One wonders who has the authority to investigate if not the DEQ. Who will put the "theories" to the test?

Moving on to another local story.

Building inspectors in Lafourche Parish have been ordered to stop their work, because THEY DO THEIR JOBS!

Again from the Daily Comet:

By Ben Lundin

THIBODAUX - ...Inspectors with the South Central Planning and Development Commission - hired by the parish to ensure buildings comply with new codes - tagged several homes with “stop work” orders after they discovered violations.

Some of the tagged homes lacked necessary permits and others featured windows that failed to meet maximum wind-resistance requirements, but [parish administrator Cullen] Curole argued that a building official said shutters could be added to comply with the law.


The inspectors are enforcing the rules too harshly, according to the parish administrator. There's a long history around here of allowing exceptions to the rules that later come back to bite - like the septic tanks (or lack thereof) along the bayou.

15 comments:

  1. When I was a boy, during World War II, we swam in Bayou Lafourche. The only thing we had to worry about was garfish nipping at our toes.

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  2. It's like 1984...nothing means what you think it ought to mean.

    Mimi--are you filtering your water? (I hope...)

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  3. Scary stuff. The California version of this is our practice of building reservoirs on hilltops on faultlines. ...

    I have to admit that years ago in a context far away, I wrote an article arguing that building code enforcement often amounted to lifestyle and consumption enforcement. I was wrong. Mostly. Unfortunately the thing was anthologized; fortunately, the book is almost certainly out of print.

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  4. We drink bottled water, which I don't entirely trust either. Who knows for sure that all the bottled water is safe? I'm getting paranoid about everything.

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  5. Yuk ... and we wonder why there's so much more cancer and disaster.

    Some 15 years ago my doctor said, Serena, drink only distilled drinking water ... all other waters are risky. I think she's right, and I've been drinking only distilled drinking water since then.

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  6. Grandmère, Even back in the 70s, our N.O. cousins drank bottled water. On the North Shore we were lucky to have all of the artesian wells that came up hot and tested pure, most of them not even requiring any chlorine. With the boom I recently witnessed North of the Lake this past year, I would wonder how much longer any ground water there can remain uncontaminated.
    As for further south, heading down to Grand Isle is like driving out to sea. It really lets you see just how much of lower Louisiana is being lost to sinking and erosion. How on earth could any septic system pass a perk test there?

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  7. Serena, the corridor along the Mississippi River in Louisiana is called "cancer alley". Incidence of cancer is higher in folks who live along the corridor, because of the pollution from the plants along the river. The water from Bayou Lafourche comes from the Mississippi River.

    Throw into the mix the pollution that flows from the source of the Mississippi on down, which includes fertilizer and pesticide run-off from farms along the river, and you can come up with quite a toxic mix.

    Boocat, we buy Kentwood bottled water, supposedly from those pure springs north of Lake Pontchartrain, but ground water from the springs will not last forever.

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  8. Mimi, I have lived up and down the MS River and would never think that anything along that route or any bayous connected to it would be safe for swimming. In fact in our religious order, we had a problem with an chronic upper respiratory problem that was because of the mold of the MS, MO, and OH River systems.

    You have polution and mold, we have floods and droughts, CA has earthquakes and agri business that pollute EVERYTHING, and MN has snow. Takes yer pick. There is going to be a skeeter in paradise!

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  9. Muthah+, I know that. If it's not hurricanes, then it's earthquakes, tornadoes, drought, floods, ice storms, or something else. There ain't no safe place.

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  10. oh, boy, I'm just getting to this and comments... and who said they don't trust bottled water either? hey, I read somewhere that it's not that different than what you get from the tap. Mostly, it's marketing. sooo.

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  11. Diane, I don't really trust the bottled water, but I hope that it's better than what comes out of the faucet.

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  12. Just 'cause you're paranoid, that don't mean nobody's out to get ya!

    Be careful, Mimi! We love you.

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  13. Mark, you're a mind reader. I nearly added that myself in my response to Diane.

    I love all of you, too. Love is all around. I'll take care. After all, I've been drinking the rotgut off and on for over 70 years.

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  14. When I was a kid in the NW UK, our water came through heavy lead pipes; I played with lead, lead-painted, toy soldiers (and melted them on the stove-top, in old tobacco tins, after they broke, for the fun of watching them quickly dissolve - LOTS of toxic smoke and fumes as they did). If it did any damage, (little mad, perhaps?) I have yet to notice.

    (Thank G-d Fr. H. is on vacation and this will not surface as an "I told you so" item on another page.)

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  15. If it did any damage, (little mad, perhaps?) I have yet to notice.

    Lapin, you may not have noticed, but the rest of us, well, perhaps I'd better stop right here....

    I won't front-page your little secret.

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