Trustees Open 30-day Public Comment Period on Draft Assessment Plan for the Devil’s Swamp Lake Superfund Site, East Baton Rouge Parish, LA

Northern portion of Devil’s Swamp Lake near the former Rollins facility drainage ditch outfall. Photo Credit: David Rouse, USFWS 

The natural resource trustees opened a 30-day public comment period on the Devil’s Swamp Lake Superfund Site Draft Natural Resource Assessment Plan on July 3, 2024. This Draft Assessment Plan provides background information on the Devil’s Swamp Lake Superfund Site, the natural resource damage assessment and restoration process, and describes the Trustees’ proposed approach to assessing natural resource injury and determining the appropriate compensation for natural resource restoration.

The natural resource trustees in this case include:

• State of Louisiana, represented by Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries; and,
• U.S. Department of the Interior, represented by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Devil’s Swamp Lake (Lake), a man-made, crescent-shaped lake that is located within the greater Devil’s Swamp, an approximately 3,500-acre stretch of floodplain and freshwater wetland, is located approximately 10 miles north of Baton Rouge, LA. In the 1970s, hazardous substances including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were released into the Lake, primarily from the former Rollins facility, a hazardous waste disposal facility located in the upland area northeast of the Lake. Direct discharges from the facility into the Lake continued until 1993.

The Trustees prepared a Preassessment Screen and Determination in 2022 that concluded a natural resource damage assessment was warranted at the Devil’s Swamp Lake Superfund Site. As a next step, the Trustees prepared this Draft Assessment Plan which is intended to:

• ensure that the assessment is conducted in a planned and systematic manner and at a reasonable cost;
• facilitate coordination between the Trustees and the public; and,
• assist with coordination between Trustee efforts and the remedial process conducted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

This Draft Assessment Plan is available for review online at https://edms.deq.louisiana.gov by searching with the agency interest (AI) number 221745.