Devil's Swamp: The Most Toxic Lake In Louisiana
Greg Atoms Published: November 2, 2022
Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
It sits just 10 miles outside of Baton Rouge, and sits just off the Mississippi River. It is listed on Federal pollution lists, and has warnings to not make contact with the water. The name is Devil's Swamp Lake, and that is a very appropriate name.
This bending body of water stretches over roughly 12 square miles in East Baton Rouge Parish. Devil's Swamp Lake is listed by the US Government as a Superfund site, a designation under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) environmental law. This is an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) list of sites so polluted, they require long-term responses. These are sites where there is so much contamination it requires a response to protect the public.
In Louisiana there are about a dozen of these sites listed by the government as Superfund sites. However if you live in the state, you know there are likely way more that just haven't been tested and confirmed.
There are multiple former manufacturing sites listed, as well as landfills, but only one lake listed on the federal list.
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Devil's Swamp Lake was originally singled out in 1993 because of the amount of cancer causing toxins found inside the water. By the year 2004, it had been escalated to the Superfund circle. Originally, advisories suggested that people don't eat too much fish from the lake, but in the early 2000s it escalated to warnings over something as simple as touching the water.
According to reports, the reason for the pollution is a hazardous waste site near the lake. Its a site opened and operated by Rollins Environmental Services, which opened in 1971.
The lake ranks as one of the deadliest in the entire country, easily making it the most toxic lake in Louisiana.
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