Uptown Messenger (https://uptownmessenger.com/category/environment/page/5/)
Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s Neighborhood Engagement Office will hold Catch Basin Cleaning Days for Districts A and D this Saturday, Oct. 28. Volunteers will clean as many catch basins as possible in a two-hour span. District A’s clean-up will meet at Brooks Shaw Temple UMC at 8818 Pear Street. The District D clean-up in Gentilly will meet at the Beacon Light Church at 1937 Mirabeau Avenue.
Moving trailside for the very first time, the 5th Annual Greenway Soirée will be held at the Cellar on St. Louis—a new adaptively repurposed warehouse venue overlooking the Greenway. The Soirée takes place on Friday, October 6, 6:00 to 11:00 p.m., and it will bring together the very best in food, drink, and entertainment for an evening of celebration. Used by over 850 people daily on foot and on bikes, the Greenway is truly a city-wide asset and the backbone of New Orleans’ growing bicycle network. Proceeds from the event will support Friends of Lafitte Greenway’s work to build program and promote the Lafitte Greenway as a great public space. The 2017 Soirée will feature musical entertainment by Brad Walker Quintet & Special Guests, David Batiste Sr. & The ReNEW Schools Turnaround Arts Choir, All Around Brass Band, DJ George Ingmire, Congo Square Preservation Society, and DJ Jennifer Brady.
City Council District A is home to a plethora of the city’s parks and greenspaces, and their management and sustainability remains an important issue as the city grows. All six District A candidates said they’d fight to keep greenspaces across the city, though they presented different preservation tactics. Two candidates stressed the importance of zoning ordinances and the city’s Master Plan in protecting current greenspace, while others argued for legislation protecting trees and living plants. Some candidates said they’d look into unifying park management into one entity, if it proves efficient. Tillman Hardy, CEO of CORE USA community development firm, said he’d prioritize protecting the city’s greenspace, particularly those used by children.
Please join the South Broad Business Coalition, a group of small business owners along the S. Broad corridor, for a Mayoral Candidates Forum on Thursday, September 21 at 4 p.m. at the Rhodes Pavilion, 3933 Washington Ave. The questions posed to the candidates will focus on economic and workforce development, economic inequality and wealth disparities, and public safety (crime and water management). Camille Whitworth will moderate the forum. Please RSVP here or register at the door. In advance of the event, we welcome the community to submit questions they have for the candidates here.
The New Orleans City Council’s budget hearing today focuses on capital improvements, public works and other drainage improvements that were paid for this year with emergency funds. When also factoring in yesterday’s fire at the Sewerage & Water Board’s Claiborne Avenue main pumping station, it’s easy to see why citizens are becoming more skeptical about the ability of our mayor and his S&WB team to protect us against flooding. Today’s conversations are especially important in light of the recent catastrophic devastation in Texas and Southwest Louisiana caused by Hurricane Harvey and the terrible toll Hurricane Irma is already having in the Caribbean. Let’s not forget that storms Jose and Katia are not far behind. At least most New Orleanians already understand what they must do to prepare for a weather emergency — load up on plywood, sand bags, a three day supply of bottled water and canned goods for people and companion animals, extra cash, and a good flashlight with new batteries.
The majority of the diesel fuel that leaked from the Sewerage & Water Board plant in Carrollton has been cleaned up, and no more has appeared, but officials are still unsure how it escaped in the first place, authorities said Thursday afternoon. The New Orleans Fire Department is “confident” that the diesel storage tank at the S&WB plant on South Claiborne was the source of the leak, but are still trying “to determine what caused the leak to occur, get an estimate of how much diesel may have escaped the tank and conclude how the diesel traveled from the containment area into the drainage and sewer systems,” according to a Fire Department news release. “The majority of the spilled diesel has been cleaned and no additional fuel has appeared, however; environmental teams from these agencies are continuing the mitigation and clean-up effort by laying soft boom to absorb the remaining diesel and cleaning diesel deposits from the sides of the canals,” the release continues.
A diesel sheen atop the water in a drainage canal in Carrollton led to the discovery Tuesday night of a leak from an underground tank at the Sewerage & Water Board plant, New Orleans city officials said Wednesday afternoon. Jefferson Parish fire officials received the first reports of an odor coming from the Leonidas canal near Metairie Road around 10 p.m. Tuesday, said New Orleans Fire Department superintendent Tim McConnell in a news conference Wednesday. The city’s hazardous-materials team was called in about an hour later about reports of a sheen on the water nearby, McConnell said, but it was too dark to determine the source then. Sewerage & Water Board officials began the work of cleaning up the diesel, and the investigation into its source continued at daybreak, McConnell said. From there, they traced it through the underground canals on South Claiborne Avenue back to the Sewerage & Water Board plant, where diesel is stored in a massive underground tank as a source of backup power.
The three candidates seeking to succeed Stacy Head as the new At-Large member of the New Orleans City Council all expressed doubts Saturday about the need for a new gas-fired Entergy power station in New Orleans East in the face of residents’ opposition there. Since the summer of 2016, Entergy has been seeking the City Council’s permission to built a new 226-megawatt plant on the former Michoud site on Old Gentilly Road, but the plan has drawn opposition from both neighborhood residents in New Orleans East and environmental groups such as the Alliance for Affordable Energy. Last month, Entergy offered to scale back its plans with a smaller option with a reciprocating engines instead of combustion turbines that would generate only 128-megawatts of power, according to The New Orleans Advocate. The candidates for Head’s seat on the Council were asked on their views about the plant by Renate Heurich, a member of the Louisiana 350 environmental-activism group, during a forum Saturday afternoon. The new plant “would raise the average customer bill by at least $6 — that’s Entergy’s number,” Heurich said, and it represents “a piece of fossil fuel infrastructure at a time when the world is moving rapidly toward clean and renewable sources of energy.”
This week’s tropical storm Cindy is just the latest example that the New Orleans region and the entire Gulf Coast must become better at living with water rather than merely struggling to defeat it. From powerful waves breaking over the sea walls on Lakeshore Drive and in Covington to flooding caused by storm surge in Venetian Isles, Myrtle Grove and Grand Isle, we must employ what the Dutch call “inventive urbanism” to make our towns and cities more resilient. Though President Trump suggests climate change is not a reality, residents along America’s coasts probably don’t agree. More cities and states are paying attention to the lessons from Hurricane Katrina and superstorm Sandy. Storm surge warnings are becoming commonplace.
Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a coalition of several organizations, will present “Concert for the Coast” to help raise awareness about Louisiana’s coastal land loss crisis and the critical projects available to restore the coast. Hosted by actor-comedian Harry Shearer and featuring local celebrities and musicians, Concert for the Coast will take place on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22, from 7 to 11 p.m. at Jazz and Heritage Center, 1225 North Rampart Street. The concert will feature performances by New Orleans “Superjam” band Dragon Smoke, Grammy-nominated Cajun band Lost Bayou Ramblers, and Mardi Gras Indians and brass band Voices of a Nation. Top Chef Fan Favorite and Louisiana native Chef Isaac Toups will also be on site cooking local dishes. More from Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition:
Without action, Louisiana could lose 2,250 square miles of land over the next 50 years, putting our communities and cultures at risk.
