Pollution sources sought

Starting Monday, the state Department of Environmental Quality will scour the banks of Bayou Lafourche in search of contamination sources that have gotten this waterway classified as “impaired” under the federal Clean Water Act.

Howard Fielding, manager of the DEQ drinking water protection program, said the mission of representatives from cities, parishes and organizations along the bayou is to overcome the bayou’s biggest problem, fecal coliform flowing into the water from failing septic systems.

“So that’s what we decided to focus on,” Fielding said. Fecal coliform are a type of bacteria that may signal presence of human or animal waste in water.

Starting on Monday and continuing for several weeks, between eight and a dozen teams of DEQ staff members will carry out the survey starting at Donaldsonville, said Jeff Dauzat, environmental scientist with the DEQ Office of Environmental Compliance Surveillance Division.

At Donaldsonville, Mississippi River water is pumped into the channel of Bayou Lafourche and eventually finds its way into the Gulf of Mexico near Golden Meadow and Grand Isle.
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