Demonstration Sites

Our three demonstration projects — Capitol Lake, the LSU Burden Wetlands and Bayou Fountain — are a direct result of SCR 24, which called for a stormwater feasibility study. The LSC’s partnership with LSU AgCenter’s Burden continues to demonstrate that funding stormwater management works. The cleanup and installation of stormwater equipment at the Burden wetland is complete. Testing and maintaining the catchment devices or stormwater equipment and collecting data is currently ongoing. This work is being funded by a $500,000 EPA trash-free waters grant awarded in 2022 and supplemental funding totaling $400,000 from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and $75,000 from the Lt. Governor’s Office/Office of Culture Recreation & Tourism. 

The stormwater demonstration project at Bayou Fountain is also complete. The LSC continues to fund the maintenance of the litter boom and collect data.

The Capitol Lake stormwater demonstration project is next. Engineering work has begun, and the stormwater equipment is expected to be installed in Spring 2024.  Once our demonstration project at Capitol Lake is completed, a manual on how to develop and implement a stormwater management program in Louisiana will be made available to the public.

Capitol Lake

Since January 2020, hundreds of community volunteers collected more than 1,200 bags of litter, 317 tires, two toilets, and one couch at Capitol Lake in Baton Rouge. A year-long study showed that 40 twenty-five-gallon bags of litter flow into Capitol Lake monthly from three untreated source points.  Most of the litter includes single-use plastics, glass, and aluminum cans. When stormwater equipment such as booms is installed at the three litter source points, it is estimated that 80 percent of the litter will be captured. Dropping in more technical equipment would allow us to do an even better job capturing flood-causing sediments, as well as litter, and removing the need to spend millions on the back-end dredging.

Once all litter source points have treatment equipment installed, we can send in volunteers to pick up decades of damage, positioning the watershed to begin to heal itself.  This model of equipment first and then volunteers energizes our volunteers for the next successful project.

We are excited to announce we have met with engineers and are hopeful that stormwater management equipment will be installed in Spring 2024.

The LSU AgCenter at Burden

The LSU AgCenter Museum & Botanic Gardens at Burden is an expansive collection of specialty gardens, woodlands, wetlands, arboreta and university research facility located in the heart of Baton Rouge. In the back corner of the property bordered by Ward Creek, there is 81 tons of litter in the property’s wetlands. During periods of flash flooding and heavy rains, the creek’s contents overflow onto the Burden property creating acres and mounds of litter at least three feet deep. Engineers, scientists, remediation experts, the state and the City of Baton Rouge are studying the situation and working to develop and implement a long-term cleanup solution. Progress is being made. In June 2022, the Phase 1 cleanup of the LSU Burden borrow pit was completed. Later that year the Phase 2 cleanup of the Burden wetland was completed. In 2023 the stormwater catchment devices were installed and continue to be monitored, tested and maintained. The wetland remains clean.

To see the benefits of stormwater management from an aerial view, please click here.