Trash and debris along New Orleans streets is not only an eyesore, it’s a major infrastructure issue. Drainage systems in the Crescent City have been overwhelmed by the millions of pounds of debris clogging them up. Kristy Trail is the Executive Director of the Ponchartrain Conservancy, a position she has held for nearly ten years. She says, after several false starts, there is now a plan being implemented to clear out those drainage systems and to keep them clean.
The Comprehensive Aquatic Litter Plan for Orleans Parish, or CALPOP, is thanks to a new grant from NOAA and aims to reduce litter in local waterways. “Back in 2018, the city did a pretty comprehensive push to clean out a lot of the storm drains and catch basins. They pulled out 72 million pounds of trash from our drainage systems and 92,000 pounds of that was Mardi Gras beads,” Trail explains. With Mardi Gras just around the corner, she’s hoping a campaign of public awareness alongside another advanced cleanup effort can help to mitigate the damage done to New Orleans’ drainage systems.
“We’ve got a multi-pronged approach that we’re going to try to do here,” Trail says. “Step one is really to try to prevent any litter from happening in the first place. That involves working with community members and schools and doing education around what litter is, how it gets there, and how to prevent it,” she adds. While telling people not to litter may seem like a simple solution to this vast problem, “casual littering” is a huge part of the issue according to Trail. So, what is casual littering? Those unsecured trash bags or boxes that blow away in the wind or the small bits of trash that blow out from an unsecured trash can lid are some examples. These bits of trash accumulate over time and can cause massive infrastructure issues.
However, the main culprit for blocked drainage systems in New Orleans is Mardi Gras beads. While citizens of the Crescent City love their throws, those beads that get kicked aside or left on the ground eventually accumulate into a massive blockage when they enter the city’s drainage systems. That blockage prevents water from being able to flow out of the city’s streets and can lead to the street flooding. What’s more, Trail says marine life gets impacted down the line from this debris as well. “This trash ends up in the lake, it ends up in the Gulf. So, this trash is not only impacting our drainage systems, it’s harming our marine life,” she adds.
There will be new devices called “Litter Getters” installed over city storm drains and waterways in partnership with the Sewerage and Water Board to capture any litter that might otherwise make its way into drainage systems. With newfound federal funding, Trail and others are optimistic that these new measures can make a noticeable impact moving forward.