outflow canals

Local, state and national agencies are responding to an oil-related incident in Jefferson Parish over the weekend.

Pink sludge was found in the 17th Street Canal and it’s not yet public knowledge how it got there.

The Coast Guard is overseeing the cleanup, which is ongoing. It says 900 gallons of waste lubricant came from Delta Petroleum. The company’s website says it blends and packs lubricants and oils.

A company spokesman says it notified state police, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the East Jefferson Levee District on Sunday.

The Army Corps of Engineers is getting closer to completing new storm protection at the 17th Street, Orleans Avenue and London Avenue canals.

The $615 million system is scheduled to be done in less than three years. Its permanent structures will reduce risk of 100-year level storm surges in New Orleans.

Lieutenant Colonel Austin Appleton is the Army Corps Deputy Commander for the New Orleans District. “What this is doing is pushing the defense of the storm surge to the edge of the city," he says. "Prior, the defense was the interior walls of the canal.”