How clean is Lake Pontchartrain these days?

I lived in Nawlins back in the late '80s and there was something called the Lake Pontchartrain Foundation that was doing a Save the Lake campaign...research studies, back to the beach parties, etc. They got the state to ban shell dredging, which they said was causing the water to be murky and muddy. My question(s): Has this effort continued? Has it been successful? Is the lake any cleaner than before -- can you safely swim and fish in it? Did Katrina affect the lake environment? With all the problems caused by the flood, does anyone still talk about lake conservation?

It is now safe to swim and fish in almost all of Lake Pontchartrain.

Signs were erected along the south shore of the lake in the 1980s warning that swimming was not safe due to pollution. Those signs have been removed because the level of toxins has dropped dramatically over the past two decades as a result of efforts by the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation: http://www.saveourlake.org/water_quality...

Also, the business of dredging oyster shells from the lake ended in the 1990s and that has improved water clarity and oxygenation dramatically. Lake Pontchartrain is too muddy to ever be a "clear" body of water, but is is much better than when dredging was ongoing.

Today, the only pollutants going into the lake on the south shore are due to "urban runoff", which is basically the rain water that is moved to the lake by the storm drain system. Urban runoff is nasty because it contains all the stuff washed away by the rain. However, the total amount of pollutants is relatively low and they tend to stay in the areas close to the mouths of the drainage canals. There is a "pump to the river" plan being considered that would eliminate urban runoff going into the lake.

The north shore has a problem with agricultural runoff from crop farms and dairy farms (many thousands of cattle) . That is also why fecal chloroform levels along parts of the north shore are unacceptably high. The solution is to build low earthen berms where the dairy farms are located along the shoreline. That will contain the cattle waste and prevent it from being washed into the lake by rain. Ditto for crop farms, where insecticide and fertilizer are being washed into the lake by rain. However, there is a dispute ongoing over who should pay for the berms + some legal issues.

It is better than it was back in the 1980's, but it is got a ways to go yet.

We were around a year-2 years from swimming in it, then Katrina happened and it proabley won't be in our lifetime.

-------------------------
Edit: Really Barry? Hmmm. I was wrong, but I'm happy about it.

I believe this is the organization you are referring to and their website should be able to answer all your questions.

http://www.saveourlake.org/