09/27/2004     

Drain Markers Aimed at Cleaning River 
By RICHARD BURGESS
rburgess@theadvertiser.com

LAFAYETTE — Used automotive oil, soapy water, antifreeze, cigarette butts, old paint, cooking grease, pesticides. If they go down a storm drain in Lafayette, they eventually find their way to Bayou Vermilion.

“Most people think there is some type of filtration, but there’s not,” said 14-year-old John Cairns, who is spreading the word about the hazards of dumping pollutants and trash down storm drains to help fulfill his Eagle Scout requirements.

Cairns is responsible for the roughly 400 blue and green medallions that have appeared recently on storm drains in the downtown area and warn, “No Dumping, Drains to Bayou.” Cairns said he originally planned to put the warning medallions only on drains in his neighborhood, “but my scoutmaster said I needed to do 400 or 500 to be effective.” The medallions were provided by the state Department of Environmental Quality and the Bayou Vermilion District under a program to educate residents about storm drain pollution.

Members of the UL Lafayette AmeriCorps, a public service group, also have helped out in the program, marking about 2,500 storm drains in Lafayette with medallions or stencils over the past two years, said local AmeriCorps Director Judd Jeansonne. “Our ultimate goal is to do every drain in Lafayette. Our hope is that we’re going to make an impact,” Jeansonne said. “Some folks really don’t know that drains connect to a waterway.”

For Cairns, the project is personal. His family’s home in the Frenchman’s Creek subdivision sits on the Vermilion. “Whenever it floods, our back yard becomes the Vermilion River, so a lot of this stuff comes right into our back yard,” he said.

Cairns organized a team of 15 people who placed the medallions — along with informative door hangers — in downtown and surrounding neighborhoods last month. He planned to put out 60 more around his neighborhood this week.

Bayou Vermilion District Director Kerry Collins said his agency plans to conduct a public education campaign on storm drain pollution later this year. Oil, cleaning solvents, grease and old paint pose an obvious threat to the river. But Collins also cited problems with storm drains sucking up leaves blown into the street, dirt eroded off construction sites and fertilizer washed off lawns.

If the leaves and dirt don’t clog drains, which could result in more flooding in the city, the debris clouds the river, making it less hospitable to vegetation and fish, Collins said. “It doesn’t sound like much, but a little here and a little there adds up to a very muddy river,” Collins said. Collins suggested sending leaves and limbs to a composting facility, sandbagging dirt exposed during construction work and being mindful not to over-fertilize yards.

Want to know more?

To obtain warning medallions for storm drains, call the state Department of Environmental Quality at (225) 219-3587.

To report illegal dumping in storm drains, call (225) 342-1234.