David Mitchell

1 month ago | theadvocate.com | David Mitchell

City-parish officials have agreed to pay state regulators $36,000 to settle old allegations that Baton Rouge's north sewage treatment plant failed to keep up with hazardous materials planning for chemicals it no longer uses. Through the fall of 2018, toxic and corrosive gaseous chlorine was used to disinfect around 21.4 million gallons per day of treated wastewater, until the city-parish spent $1 million to switch to a different method with safer chemicals, Baton Rouge officials said this week.

1 month ago | theadvocate.com | David Mitchell

The Amite River Basin Commission recently outlined 13 major projects in its first master plan. Of the costs estimated, the plan could reach more than $3.8 billion. Bayou Manchac improvements: Cost $29.9 million, funded, dredging of Alligator Bayou and Bayou Manchac, realignment of Ward Creek, replacing Perkins Road bridge. Lower Amite sediment removal: $80 million, only lower portion funded from La. 22 to Lake Maurepas. Counteracts impact of diversion canal weir repairs (below).

1 month ago | nola.com | David Mitchell

An 82-year-old oil well that broke loose last month and spewed oily water into the fragile coastal marsh of Plaquemines Parish will be permanently shut and sealed off, the owner-operator said. Passed from successive owners for years, the Garden Island Bay oil well first drilled in late 1942 was capped a decade ago and held in reserve in hopes of future production, state oil and gas records show.

1 month ago | theadvocate.com | David Mitchell

New drainage pumps to the Mississippi River. Clearing out sediment blockages in the lower Amite River and snags and high spots in Bayou Manchac. Building a large, multibillion dollar reservoir somewhere in St. Helena and East Feliciana parishes or even southern Mississippi. The Amite River Basin Commission, a Baton Rouge regional agency most tied to the long-running Comite River Diversion Canal, has aimed big with its first master plan.

1 month ago | nola.com | David Mitchell

New drainage pumps to the Mississippi River. Clearing out sediment blockages in the lower Amite River and snags and high spots in Bayou Manchac. Building a large, multibillion dollar reservoir somewhere in St. Helena and East Feliciana parishes or even southern Mississippi. The Amite River Basin Commission, a Baton Rouge regional agency most tied to the long-running Comite River Diversion Canal, has aimed big with its first master plan.