Demonstration Sites

Our five demonstration projects — Capitol Lake, the Burden Wetlands, Bayou Fountain, Bayou Monte Sano and Five Oaks Estates residential detention ponds — 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 independently fund the maintenance of the litter boom and collect data.

We added two more demonstration projects in 2024 — Monte Santo Bayou and Five Oaks Estates residential detention ponds. Both of these projects are made possible through collaboration with community partners.

Once our demonstration projects are completed, a manual on how-to develop and implement a stormwater management program in Louisiana will be made available to the public.

Capitol Lake

Most of the litter in Capitol Lake includes single-use plastics, glass, and aluminum cans. As a bird sanctuary and the backyard of our State Capitol and Governor’s Mansion, it is our hope that up to 80 percent of the litter will be captured when the right stormwater equipment is installed.

We are pleased to announce that work has begun. The LSC is leading the effort and is collaborating with engineers, the LDEQ project team, the Governor’s Office and stormwater management experts and others. The project is on track to install stormwater equipment at the beginning of 2025.

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 was seven tons of litter in the property’s wetlands. During periods of flash flooding and heavy rains, the creek’s contents overflowed 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 studied the situation and worked to develop and implement a long-term cleanup solution. Progress was 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 — in this case a litter coral — was installed and a legacy cleanup was conducted. The wetland remains clean and continues to be monitored, tested and maintained.

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