From oiled marshes and decreased oyster harvests to rising poverty rates and loss of livelihoods, Louisiana has suffered in many ways from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Soon, we will have a chance to repair and restore both our environment and our economy, as the Restore Act sends billions of dollars in Clean Water Act fines to the Gulf Coast states.
Restoring our coastal treasures can help tackle many economic goals, including drawing more visitors, promoting thriving fisheries and making our communities more resilient in the face of future storms and sea level rise.
Kevin Spear | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted April 24, 2006 If it’s wise to save money for rainy days, then maybe there’s some wisdom in saving rain for days when you’re poor — water-poor that is. It’s an idea that’s taking hold in fast-growing Central Florida to prevent future water shortages: collecting water during rainy season, storing it and then using it during the dry season. But it’s not an easy task. Storing any significant amount of water could require hundreds of giant tanks or very large reservoirs. There is a cheaper and more effective way, environmental authorities say. In Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties, experts are probing deep underground for formations of porous rock that will hold hundreds of millions of gallons of water. The water would be treated to drinking quality and injected into a well. The underground rock would keep the water in place so it can be retrieved later through the same well. That’s “aquifer storage and recovery” in expert jargon. More important than what the technology is called is what it can do.
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The Orlando, Florida businessman, owner of Barnes, Ferland & Associates, Inc., came to New Orleans about a year ago to help out with recovery efforts. Contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lend his firm’s expertise in environmental engineering, Barnes decided to duplicate a program he initiated in Florida years ago to engage unemployed and underemployed young people in creater brighter economic futures for themselves while protecting the community against environmental hazards.
NEW ORLEANS, LA — Today AECOM, a leading global provider of professional technical and management support services in more than 140 countries around the world, and Limitless Vistas, Inc. (LVI), a nonprofit organization based in New Orleans, LA, announced a partnership to train and employ some of the region’s most at-risk youth for new jobs in environmental restoration.