environmental awareness

by Charlie London

There is no quick fix to flooding but there are some things you can do right now.
Old timers in Faubourg St. John know that the lot that used to be paved with cement at the corner of Hagan and Lafitte Streets used to be a veritable pond any time it rained. Parkway Bakery bought the lot several years ago for parking and paved it with a permeable surface. The area is a pond no more!

Remove cement around your home and install the system featured in the link or something similar and you will keep thousands of gallons of water off of your property.

A simple way to get thousands of gallons of water away from your property is to plant a tree. Details in the link:
http://www.northlandnemo.org/images/800TreeCityUSABulletin_55.pdf

And, believe or don’t, trees reduce crime. Details in the link:
https://fsjna.org/2012/12/plant-a-tree-reduce-crime/

Parkway Bakery. Those who frequent this restaurant know quality poboys and friendly folks can be found there.

Even the President of the United States and his family heard how great the place was and decided to check it out.

Driving down Jefferson Davis Parkway toward Bayou St. John, where Jeff Davis turns into Hagan, you may have noticed the transformation of the lot on the corner there.

As many assumed, the lot is going to be a place for cars to park. But, what was once a constantly flooded mess will now be an environmentally friendly place for folks to put their vehicles when they visit Parkway Bakery for poboys.

Jay Nix, owner of Parkway Poboys paved his parking lot in an environmentally friendly way.

How could a parking lot be environmentally friendly? It’s not asphalt or cement but recycled plastic forms that are filled with gravel. This type of pavement allows the water to go through the parking lot so pools of water don’t form when it rains and there won’t be water running off in to the street further taxing the city’s pumping system.

See those yellow lines in the photos below? Those are not painted on lines like you would see on a regular parking lot but plastic inserts that snap into the molds.

Permeable paving allows water to go through the parking lot instead of running out into the street.

Want to know more? Check out the video report below from WDSU TV:

You can have an environmentally friendly driveway or porch installed at your home for about 7-10 dollars per square foot.

Yellow plastic inserts are snapped in to the molds to make lines for the parking lot. No paint!

For more information about TRUE GRID PAVERS, click on the photos above or the link below:

http://www.truegridpaver.com/product-features/

Robert Thompson sent in this business card from one of 23 New Orleans business which made cisterns in 1909. Robert writes, “The original rain barrel! A few even survive today as evidence New Orleans can retain and use rainwater. How about a tank which could slip easily into the crawl space underneath our many shotgun structures…lot of potential storage there.”

***
Faubourg St. John neighbor Michael Ward noted, “I have a company that installs rainwater pillows for under the house, rain barrels, and custom cisterns. We have been doing it for 8 years.

Mike
New Orleans Bamboo LLC

Rain water Pillows

New Orleans Bamboo LLC can size and install rainwater pillows in any size from 1000 gallons on up.

For more information on this or other products, call New Orleans Bamboo at 504.486.0052 or email mike(at)nolabamboo.com

Custom Cisterns

New Orleans Bamboo LLC can design and install anything from a rain barrel to cisterns of any size. We are accredited by the American Rainwater Catchment Association. New Orleans Bamboo is happy to come out to you and give you a free assessment. They offer maintenance contracts on all of their cisterns. Rain water is a free resource and your gardens and plants will thrive with natural water. For more information on this or the other products they have, call New Orleans Bamboo at 504.486.0052 or email mike(at)nolabamboo.com

***

Water

Problem: New Orleans is below sea level and sinking, and the city’s pumping system designed to alleviate flooding is often overwhelmed during heavy rains. At 60+ inches of rain per year, the Greater New Orleans area sees some of the highest annual rainfall in the country. Storm runoff during heavy rain events causes flooding that affects the well-being, property, and livelihood of every New Orleans inhabitant. The city’s pumping system expends a colossal amount of resources to pump water, full of pollutants from city streets, into Lake Pontchartrain.

Solution: Harvesting water in rain barrels helps divert some of the water that would otherwise run off of impervious surfaces into storm drains and contribute to street flooding. By catching and recirculating water locally, residents can help manage storm water runoff from their property. Residents can use the storm water around the home and garden, helping them conserve their municipal water use. Green Light plans to implement a small-scale rain barrel program for its backyard gardeners, who can use the water to grow their vegetables.

Green Light New Orleans
8203 Jeannette Street
New Orleans, LA 70118

phone number: 504-324-2429

Parkway Permeable Paving

Cisterns: The Original Rain Barrel