UWMRC has completed work with the Port of South Louisiana to develop a brownfields grant application to clean up five wastewater ponds and residual ground and subsurface debris

The Urban Waste Management & Research Center (UWMRC) has completed work with the Port of South Louisiana (PSL) to develop a brownfields grant application to clean up five wastewater ponds and residual ground and subsurface debris at the Port in Reserve, La., the largest tonnage importer in the United States and third-largest in the world.

“Securing this grant will enable the Port of South Louisiana to further redevelop an industrial site that has already seen quite a lot of remediation and cleanup over the last year,” said UWMRC project developer John Sutherlin. “When completed, this project may be a showcase for what other ports in the U.S. can do in terms of cleanup and redevelopment.”

The project began last August when the PSL Commission agreed to support the UWMRC in securing grant monies to continue the redevelopment efforts. The PSL, whose major imports are petrochemicals and fertilizers, promotes maritime commerce, trade and development through public and private partnerships at its intermodal terminals and industrial facilities.

“The combination of people working on this project represents a cross-section of engineers, policy analysts, government and regulatory officials, and private businesses,” Sutherlin said. “This is what makes a brownfields project successful.”

Contact Sutherlin at isuthe9831@aol.com or (504) 280-6189, or visit www.uwmrc.org.