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City-Parish to assess overgrown, trash-filled canal near LSU
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BATON ROUGE — A drainage canal along Aster Street near LSU’s campus is overgrown with thick vegetation and littered with trash—and city-parish officials say they are now taking action to address it.
Known as the LSU Canal, the open-channel waterway runs east from Aster Street behind Baton Rouge Fire Station 11, connecting to Corporation Canal before flowing south into Bayou Duplantier.
Students passing by on Friday called the site an eyesore.
"They should definitely clean it up; there's debris all over the place, and it just looks trashy," LSU student Izzy Blackledge said. "LSU is known for its beautiful campus, and walking by this doesn't help that reputation."
Fellow student Amya Ramsey echoed the concern. "It seems like it's just abandoned and uncared for," Ramsey said.
Experts warn the buildup poses risks beyond aesthetics. Marie Constantine of the Louisiana Stormwater Coalition noted that heavy vegetation indicates significant sediment accumulation, which restricts the canal's water flow and reduces its overall drainage capacity.
"It's pretty bad because if you're seeing the grass, there's a lot of sediment that's built up, and if there's a lot of sediment that's built up, then there's a lot of plants, and if there's a lot of plants, then the carrying capacity of that canal to carry water away is being reduced," Constantine said.
East Baton Rouge Director of Maintenance Reginal Brumfield told WBRZ the city-parish maintains the open-channel portion of the LSU Canal, including the section in the vicinity of Aster Street.
After WBRZ contacted city-parish officials about the canal, Brumfield said they "currently do not have an active service request for vegetation maintenance at this location."
Brumfield then went on to say that they will perform a "full assessment of this section of the canal during the upcoming week to determine the extent of vegetation maintenance needed and schedule services accordingly based on the findings."
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