Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality recognizes Jefferson Parish for pollution prevention efforts
The Jefferson Parish Department of Environmental Affairs received the 2024 Environmental Leadership Program’s Municipality Achievement Award in Pollution Prevention from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) at an awards ceremony in Baton Rouge on April 9, 2025.
The LDEQ recognized the Department of Environmental Affairs’ achievement in educating individual citizens, businesses and industries on stormwater management and urban gardening.
An educational project with an overview of the stormwater collection system in Jefferson Parish, along with best management practices for utilizing urban space for the beneficial use of stormwater and soil for gardening and agriculture, the Pollution Prevention project emphasizes the following: urban stormwater management, the benefits of urban gardening for the stormwater system, household chemicals for gardening, water and energy conservation, transforming food deserts, controlling pests and composting. The project was made possible with funding provided by a sub-grant from the University of New Orleans Research and Technology Foundation.
“Jefferson Parish continues to launch stormwater outreach programs to educate the public and businesses about what they can do to prevent pollution and keep our local waterways clean,” said Jefferson Parish Department of Environmental Affairs Storm Water Management Supervisor Sami Khalil in a press release. “We are proud of these award-winning programs, which use a variety of different outreach efforts to increase public awareness of the environmental consequences related to specific activities that contribute to storm water pollution.”
The Jefferson Parish Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) consists of over 1,400 miles of subsurface drainpipes and over 300 miles of open canals and ditches. Stormwater runoff from residential, commercial and industrial land areas can collect oil, grease, litter, hazardous wastes, sediment and other pollutants, which can pollute surrounding waterbodies such as Lake Pontchartrain. Environmental Affairs investigates hundreds of complaints of illegal discharges to the drainage system each year.
The Environmental Leadership Program was established in 1995 as a voluntary cooperative effort between the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and various Louisiana industries to promote pollution prevention and other efforts, in the pursuit of environmental excellence and leadership. At the awards ceremony, members of the ELP were commended for their voluntary pollution prevention efforts, community environmental outreach initiatives, environmental ordinances and enforcement and environmental management systems that went above and beyond regulatory compliance to improve the environment.
