Water News Archives

Yesterday, a Lafourche Parish man, who was arrested in September 2014 by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality for the illegal discharge of diesel fuel into state waterways, pled guilty to this charge in the 17th Judicial District Court in Thibodaux.

Attention local citizens, industry representatives, environmental managers and non-profits: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality are sponsoring a free informational webinar on Thursday, April 16, at 10 a.m. and Tuesday, April 21, at 2 p.m. CST.

Staff members at the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) collaborated and came up with a way to mainstream both agencies' paperwork and regulatory workloads, recycle some valuable assets, stimulate more agricultural production and at the same time, help keep the environment clean and safe for human health.

The 6 p.m. public hearing for the Nola Oil Terminal Louisiana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (LPDES) permit application scheduled for tonight, April 14, has been canceled due to inclement weather. The hearing was to have been held at the Belle Chasse Auditorium in Belle Chasse. The LDEQ Office of Environmental Services will reschedule this public hearing at a future date.

The 2015 Louisiana Envirothon Environmental Competition was held March 14 at the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens in Baton Rouge. Five teams from grades 9 through 12 participated in an environmental problem solving competition that consisted of testing in aquatics, forestry, soils, wildlife, the current issue on Urban and Community Forestry and an oral presentation.

Today, DEQ hosted the Environmental Leadership Awards at the DEQ headquarters in the Galvez building in downtown Baton Rouge. DEQ Secretary Peggy Hatch was joined by Sen. Mike Walsworth, chair, Senate Environmental Quality Committee, and Rep. Gordon Dove, chair, House Natural Resources and Environment Committee, to recognize environmental achievements. Members of ELP were commended for their voluntary pollution prevention efforts, community environmental outreach initiatives, and environmental management systems that went above and beyond regulatory compliance to improve the environment

The DEQ Drinking Water Protection Team needs you! There will be a second meeting for the Evangeline Parish Drinking Water Protection Program, and it is not too late to get involved.

Today investigators with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality's Criminal Investigation Division arrested a Calcasieu Parish couple on 15 felony violations of Louisiana�s Water Control Law. Ronnie LaRocca, 54, and Katherine LaRocca, 51, residing at 2530 Carlo Henry Road, own and operate Oak Forest Mobile Home Park on La. 3059 east of La. 171 in Lake Charles. The LaRoccas are alleged to have knowingly violated their water discharge permit issued by DEQ over the past four years when they failed to sample sewage treatment plant discharges from their mobile home park and submit quarterly monitoring reports to DEQ.