A DEPARTMENT OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA

WATER

What's in your water? FAQs

What can I do if I live in a city?

What can I do to protect my watershed?

Get involved in your local watershed group work on a storm drain marking project , use best management practices when washing your car, disposing of your used oil, disposing of vegetable oil or crawfish water, picking up waste from your pet, or working in your yard. There are many actions that people can take to prevent nonpoint source pollution and protect our water quality.

2012 Project Review

What can I do if I am a logger?

  • Use forestry best management practices in all stages of your logging operation
  • Become a Master Logger
  • Participate in your local watershed group
  • Follow federal guidelines when harvesting in wetlands
  • Leave streamside management zones to protect water quality

What can I do if I live on a farm?

  • Use conservation tillage practices
  • Use pesticide and nutrient management practices
  • Protect stream buffers and streamside management zone
  • Use a cover crop to capture residual nutrients on your fields
  • Become a Master Farmer
  • Contact your local USDA agent about Farm Bill Programs that protect water quality
  • Have your home sewage system inspected and maintained on a routine basis

What can I do if I am a city planner?

  • Learn your watershed boundaries
  • Learn whether the water bodies in your watershed are not meeting their fishable and swimmable goals
  • Incorporate smart growth and green infrastructure into you cities planning for development, roads and storm water systems
  • Work with your state and federal agencies on protecting wetlands, urban forests, urban streams and wildlife habitat

What can I do if I am a developer?

  • Incorporate best management practices into your site design
  • Design your development to capture and retain the first one inch of rainfall on site;
  • Retain wetland and natural drainages as a component of your site design
  • Use green infrastructure, native plants, grassed swales and wetlands in your site designs
  • Work with the Local Planning Commission on storm water requirements and watershed protection

Where is my watershed?

Louisiana has 12 large watersheds, called basins which are divided into 476 smaller watersheds called subsegments. LDEQ collects water quality data for each subsegment in the state. You can go to LDEQ’s website and  find out what the water quality is within your watershed.

Watershed Brochures

What is nonpoint source pollution?

Nonpoint source pollution is any pollutant that runs off the land from our yards, farms, forests, streets and parking lots throughout the watershed. Nonpoint source pollution enters our bayous, rivers, and lakes when it rains and includes sediment (mud), fertilizers, pesticides, oil, metals, litter, and bacteria (from animal waste).

What is a watershed?

A watershed is an area of land that drains to a river, bayou, lake, estuary, or wetland.