Kenner Gets $21M Loan To Fix Sewer System

The Times-Picayune reports it's the second low-interest loan Kenner has received from the Department of Environmental Quality.

Officials say Kenner's sewerage infrastructure has been neglected for decades. Underground terra cotta pipes sink and break, clogging the lines, taxing the 78 lift stations, leaking wastewater into the soil and letting rainwater invade the system.

During heavy rain, the treatment plant is overloaded, so toilets back up and untreated sewage is sometimes diverted into drainage canals that empty into Lake Pontchartrain.

DEQ gave Kenner a $22 million loan in 2006.

The new loan carries an interest rate of 0.95 percent.