Workers clad in red life jackets descended on a New Orleans canal on Wednesday, wading into a longstanding problem to float a potential solution.
They were installing an orange and black floating chain across the Monticello Avenue Canal, which runs along the Orleans-Jefferson Parish line. The chain is a “litter boom,” a device designed to capture the mounds of plastic bottles and other trash floating down the canal.
It’s one part of a larger initiative from the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, a nonprofit and private partners to cut down on the amount of litter coming through the city’s drainage system. The trash can clog up the system and help cause flooding before ultimately ending up in Lake Pontchartrain.
“It’s hugely important to keep that trash out of the system, and to prevent it from getting into our waterways,” said Corey Miller, community engagement and education director with the Pontchartrain Conservancy, a partner on the project. “It’s critically important that we try to get ahold of this problem.”
On Wednesday, workers from the , a company based in Mobile, Ala., worked to install four litter booms in three canals across New Orleans: in the Monticello canal, in the St. Charles Canal in New Orleans East and in a canal in the Lower Ninth Ward that flows through Pump Station Five.
The booms will capture litter that floats down the canal, trapping it before it moves through the drainage system. Employees from the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board and Osprey Initiative will work together to collect the accumulated trash and maintain the booms for the next two years.
Trash that is collected will be quantified and measured to ascertain the kinds of litter most common in the canals and peak trash times during the year, Miller said.
In addition to the booms, 40 “litter interceptors” will be strategically installed in storm drains around the city during times when littering surges, such as Mardi Gras or festival season, Miller said. Data from those interceptors — essentially sieves that fit into the drains — will be collected as well.
At the end of two years, the Pontchartrain Conservancy and Sewerage and Water Board hope to have enough data to issue recommendations on how to reduce the amount of litter in the city’s drainage. If the litter booms haven’t collected significant trash over two years, they can be removed or relocated to better address the problem, said Don Bates, who founded Osprey Initiative.
‘A larger issue’
The program is called the “Comprehensive Aquatic Litter Plan for Orleans Parish,” or CALPOP. Pontchartrain Conservancy will also visit schools and community groups for education programming as part of the plan. It’s funded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s , which also helped fund r.
In total, the CALPOP project is expected to cost around $793,000, according to the Pontchartrain Conservancy.
Litter stands in the water where a litter boom is being installed at the Monticello Avenue Canal in New Orleans, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. STAFF PHOTO BY ENAN CHEDIAK
Enan Chediak
Any trash that gets into catch basins can pose a problem for the stormwater drainage system and operation of the pumps, said Corwin Washington, deputy chief administrator for environmental affairs with the Sewerage and Water Board. The trash can contribute to street flooding during heavy rains, when the system is inundated.
The collected trash data will be submitted to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Washington said. But it will also help inform Sewerage and Water Board’s management of the litter program going forward.
New Orleans’ complex stormwater drainage system largely drains into Lake Pontchartrain. Trash getting into the lake can harm its estuarine habitat, Miller said.
Plastic breaks down into microplastics, which are then eaten by the fish that people catch from the lake, Miller said. Scientists have
Once the federal funds run out, the Sewerage and Water Board hopes to take on maintaining the litter booms and litter interceptors, Washington said. The Pontchartrain Conservancy, Osprey Initiative and Sewerage and Water Board have a standing agreement already, he said, and hope to continue working together.
“Sewerage and Water Board, Osprey, and Pontchartrain Conservancy all have a common mission,” Washington said. “Working together to play a small part in a larger issue in the city.”