Toxic Capitol Lakes likely to be cleaned by feds

BATON ROUGE – They may look pretty, but under the surface lies an ugly truth.

The Capitol Lakes, which flank the State Capitol, are actually pretty toxic—and have been for decades.

“The pollutant we’re talking about is PCB’s—Polychlorinated biphenyls. They outlawed it in the united states in the late 70s,” said Greg Langley, LDEQ Press Secretary.

The chemical compound was once used as a type of oil. It was so bad, signs were put up in the 80s around the lakes warning people not to eat any fish caught here. They still remain today.

“It bioaccumulates, and bioaccumulation means it intensifies.”

The state thought the problem would solve itself, but after they tested some fish in 2017, they still found PCBs.

“We realized we needed bigger resources than we had so we decided to get the EPA involved.”

At the end of last year, Governor John Bel Edwards wrote a letter to the EPA requesting some help. Now, the lakes are up for addition to the national priorities list where they will be eligible to become a superfund site.

Basically, the federal government will pay to clean it up, and then bill the companies they deem responsible for the contamination, which, according to a 1980s investigation, could be the Kansas City Railroad or a number of other sites where PCBs were found.

“We want it returned to its regular uses. It’s normal uses which would be recreation and fishing. That may take a long time even after the remediation is done, but we’re hopeful that we can get it back to a nice water body in a beautiful location in downtown Baton Rouge where the people of Louisiana can come and enjoy it.”

LDEQ says the lakes should be added to the national register in March, then it’s just a matter of waiting on the EPA.