News - Local
Effort to Protect Lake Pontchartrain
Posted: May 3, 2010 5:16 PM by Melissa Canone
Updated: May 3, 2010 5:16 PM
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - New Orleans plans to open a staging area at
Fort Pike for the effort to protect Lake Pontchartrain from oil
advancing from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who took office Monday, said the city is
working with St. Tammany Parish, which borders the northern end of
the lake.
Lake Pontchartrain is connected to the Gulf the Rigolets and the
Chef Menteur passes. It was one of the primary conduits of storm
surge from the Gulf during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Local officials and environmentalists spent decades cleaning up
the lake and in recent years many species of wildlife have returned
to its brackish waters. Dolphins are frequent visitors and manatees
have visited.
Fort Pike, a historic landmark, was built in the early 1800s.
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