Water Quality Improvement and Revitalization on Pontchartrain Beach, New Orleans
Andrea Bourgeois-Calvin, PhD
Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, 2045 Lakeshore Drive, Suite 339, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70122
504-836-2235, andrea@saveourlake.org
In the 1980’s, the idea of swimming, boating, or fishing in Lake Pontchartrain seemed absurd. Decades of
wastewater discharge into the lake, actually an inland bay, had polluted its waters. Swimming advisories
were posted for the south shore of the lake (adjacent to Greater New Orleans) and all of the lake’s
contributing rivers.
In 1989 a citizen-led effort resulted in the formation of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF), a
non-profit organization whose mission is the restoration and preservation of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin
waters and lands. LPBF immediately undertook and completed a Comprehensive Management Plan for
the Lake Pontchartrain Basin and began implementing programs to restore the lake’s water quality and
Pontchartrain’s ecosystems. By 2001, it became evident that the programs were working and the lake was
becoming clearer and cleaner; however, the public’s perception was that the lake was still polluted. To
combat this perception, LPBF began testing the lake’s water quality on a weekly basis and reporting that
data to the public with the goal of educating the public so they would be comfortable in utilizing the lake
again. It is a program that continues to this day.
One of the sites tested in LPBF’s program was a beach at the site of the old Pontchartrain Beach
amusement park, adjacent to the University of New Orleans. The approximately 15-acre site was still a
beach but was overgrown and in disrepair. However; monitoring indicated that the water quality at the
beach was meeting state standards for Primary Contact Recreation (PCR; i.e. swimming) 93% of the time.
In 2006, Lake Pontchartrain was removed from EPA’s Impaired Waterbodies list for PCR and plans could
be made to reopen recreational opportunities on the lake.
In anticipation of reopening recreational opportunities to the public, LPBF began a public planning process
for the future use of Pontchartrain Beach in 2005. The stakeholder-driven plan included cleaning and
securing the beach site, replenishing the sand beach, and creating spaces for various uses including
boating, picnicking, a dog park, environmental education, etc. Progress on this plan was halted in 2005
with Hurricane Katrina and in 2010 with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
In 2013, LPBF was able to resume planning the opening of Pontchartrain Beach, including the application
to and receipt of an Urban Waters grant from EPA to assist in the logistics of reopening the beach. To fulfill
the Urban Waters grant, LPBF is in the process of working with the landowners, the Orleans Levee Board,
to obtain the lease for the beach, begin a fundraising campaign, and start the infrastructure work that must
be completed to open the beach. It is LPBF’s goal to have Pontchartrain Beach reopened to the public and
bring the community back to this lakefront asset by the summer of 2016.
Andrea Bourgeois-Calvin is the Water Quality Program Director for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin
Foundation (LPBF) where she has coordinated LPBF’s water monitoring programs since their inception in
2001. A native of New Orleans, she holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Biological Sciences and a
PhD in Applied Science and Engineering, focusing on water geochemistry. She is also an Assistant
Adjunct Professor with Tulane University and maintains student interns from all regional universities. She
chairs and/or represents LPBF in numerous collaborative partnerships addressing water quality issues.