|
12/19/2023
WT Staff
HAPPENING NOW
St Tammany Parish enters the drought map
Lake Lery socked in with HABs
Up to the minute water news for Tuesday, December 19, 2023 - last updated 144 pm CST
Drought Map from USGS 7-day average streamflows compared to historic averages
St Tammany Parish is overtaken with a below normal rating on the drought map Tuesday with the northeast quarter of Washington falling into below normal flow status also. The drought map otherwise appears as yesterday, severe drought having taken over most of the central state area, Region 1 in the northeast turning from below normal to moderate drought today.
Extreme drought remains on the Region 3 watershed between the Tensas and Mississippi Rivers in northeast LA, including East Carroll, Madison and Tensas Parishes.
The west half of Bossier Parish, the west half of Washington Parish and a sliver of has come off the drought map, a sliver of St Helena and Livingston Parish are the last vestiges of normal in the west and north. Regions 6 and 8 south of Lake Pontchartrain continue to defy the advancing drought.
Eight streamflow monitors are recording low flow values in Louisiana Tuesday afternoon, a grim expectation of more drought pressure as the streams slow further. Bayou Pierre in Region 1, Little River in Region 2, Bayou Bartholomew and Tensas River in Region 3, two monitors on the Sabine River and Bayou Anococo in Region 4 and Bayou Teche in Region 5 extreme low flows tell the water story in Louisiana. Updates in progress. More to follow. See brown tags on the map for details.
Note WaterToday reports day-to-day changes recorded by USGS streamflow monitors on rivers and tributaries located in Louisiana, along with monitors upstream in the Mississippi River basin: Ohio, Georgia and southwest New York state. USGS creates a drought map from 7-day average streamflow readings, by comparing the average with the historic weekly normal flow value for each location. The drought ratings are below normal, moderate hydrologic drought, severe drought and extreme drought.
Boil Water Advisories:
Washington has issued a BWA due to an electrical problem with a sensor that was clogged up. The advisory will be in effect until further notice.
Refer to yellow tags on the map for more BWAs in effect in the state of Louisiana. Also see the latest EPA Safe Drinking Water Act list of Serious Violators under the SDWA button to the right of the map.
HABs Report from National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) satellite monitoring program
The latest image provided is from December 18, a clear picture of southeast Louisiana taken at a low surface wind speed, 4.7 mph giving us a clear view of the water bodies and reliable assessment of HAB activity.
No HAB activity is evident in Lake Pontchartrain or Lake Maurepas in the December 18 image taken at low wind speed, we can therefore go with the image as we see it, no HABs. HAB activity showing in Lake Verret and Lac des Allemands, Bayou Fortier is very much reduced from what we have seen in the past. The remaining HAB area is relatively small, dispersed in open water. Lake Palourde has a large localized HAB in the south end. Lake Cataouache and Lake Salvador HABs appear a slightly lower concentration, 500 thousand cells per 100 ml, the extent being widespread in the south half of Salvador, lakewide in Cataouache.
Lighting up the HAB shot of December 18 is a bright green 700 to 800 thousand cells per 100 ml filling Lake Levy from shore to shore to shore, along with the bayous of Black Bay. The HAB seems to be glowing in all the water east of Lake Salvador.
See the bluegreen tags on our map for more
Hazardous Spills emergency and non-emergency incidents reported to Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
Crude oil spill in the Gulf
The last update from Unified Command was offered ten days ago, on December 5, 2023. As of that time, the entire length of the Main Pass Oil Gathering (MPOG) company's pipeline system has been examined and the source of the leak had not been found. Quoting from the Unified Command press statement of Dec 5, The cause and source of the incident remain under investigation. The entire length of the main pipeline has been assessed to date, along with 22.16 miles of surrounding pipelines with no damage or indications of a leak identified. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and divers continue to reassess the main pipeline and surrounding pipelines as a sustained effort to locate the source of the suspected release.
Dial 228-273-2400 for claims associated with this incident. To report oiled wildlife in the area, call the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries at 337-735-8677. See the CWA Crimebox for a historic case brief related to a spill of 500 barrels of crude oil spilled in the Gulf in 2012. More to follow.
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA role in supporting Unified Command
From the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration:
"In response to the crude oil release, known as the MPOG 11015 incident, a Unified Command was established by the USCG, the responding party MPOG, and the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office, in coordination with NOAA, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Forefront Emergency Management and other federal, state and local agencies to develop and execute a response strategy. For decades, the USCG and NOAA have played a joint role in ensuring vital operational support and response capabilities for oil and chemical spills. After the reports were received, OR&R began deploying to provide response support on-scene to the incident management team, the Federal On-scene Coordinator (U.S. Coast Guard), and Unified Command based in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.
Note about hazardous spill incident reporting, from LDEQ: Information contained in the Field Interview form is the preliminary observation of the inspector. This should not be construed as a final determination of LDEQ, its officers or personnel as to any matter, including compliance or non-compliance with statutes, regulations and permits.
Each day of non-compliance is considered a separate violation of the Louisiana Environmental Quality Act.
See the pink tags on the map with the watershed layer turned on, showing the potential impact zone of hazardous spills in the environment. Refer to the Spills button on the right of the map for more incident reports filed this year.
|
|
|
All rights reserved 2022 - WTLA - This material may not be reproduced in whole or in part and may not be distributed,
publicly performed, proxy cached or otherwise used, except with express permission.
|
| 
| ABOUT 
