Mile 112.1 - East Jefferson Parish Discharge
112.1 East Jefferson Parish Discharge
A low water sandbar is found downstream of the East Jefferson Parish Discharge, but this is a place you will definitely want to avoid except in emergency situations. Black water releases are common. As with similar sized communities across America, East Jefferson Parish communities are having difficulty keeping storm water separate from waste water, and street dumpings of motor oil, paints, and other unwanted liquids are all too frequent.
Jefferson is a long, narrow Parish (County) in Louisiana, adjacent to the city of New Orleans, reaching from Lake Pontchartrain on the north, about 55 miles south to Grand Isle, on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. The northern 14 miles of Jefferson is split by the winding Mississippi River into an East and West Bank and this portion of the Parish is considered urbanized, and part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. In addition, the Parish is further bounded by estuarine systems of the Gulf of Mexico, at tide level. Most of the population of Jefferson (nearly ½ Million) is in this urbanized metropolitan area, which has relatively flat topography with ground elevations varying from slightly above to about five (5) feet below sea level. Flood control is provided by a system of levees, floodwalls, canals and drainage pump stations. All storm water runoff is conveyed by gravity through a system of subsurface drainage lines and canals into the suction bays of various pump stations then pumped into surrounding bodies of water outside of the flood protection system. The Department of Drainage is responsible for the administration, direction, coordination and implementation of major drainage and flood control programs and direct operation, construction and maintenance of: 340 miles of drainage canals, drainage ditches, 1465 miles of street subsurface drainage systems, and the operation and maintenance of 53 drainage pump stations. The Drainage Department also schedules and monitors pump station screen cleaning operations, canals and waterways trash pickup and grass cutting. The Department plans and coordinates construction of capital improvements and special projects. It maintains and manages the Parish wide Drainage and Flood Control System, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) flood gauges and associated structures. (Jefferson Parish Drainage District)