Support for Louisiana, the state we're in is provided by.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and.

Installing new technology to prevent outages before they.

Happen.

Together.

Together.

Together.

We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.

And our very, very and every time I look at the bill, I'm angry.

Frustration mounts as Entergy customers face surging rates.

As people around Louisiana know.

August, September, October.

Those are kind of our peak hurricane months.

Bracing for the worst, but praying for the best.

It's predicted that about 98 to 99% of Americans have fast running through their bloodstreams.

What's actually in the water you drink?

But it's not about us.

And our generation is about future generations.

Coastal restoration and the power of the river.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Kara St. Cyr.

Andre Moreau is off tonight, but he has two reports coming up later in our broadcast.

But first, though, abortion clinics are operational once again in Louisiana as a debate over the clarity of abortion laws continues.

Judge Donald Johnson issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday, which means that attorneys on both sides have 30 days to prepare for trial.

That would determine if Louisiana's abortion laws should be permanently blocked.

And now to news making headlines across the state.

The renovation of a seafood processing facility at the LSU Exeter's Iberia Research Station will give mom and pop fishermen and small seafood processors hands on training using a variety of equipment.

The project is supported by the Louisiana Sea Grant and LSU Action.

The state's Insurance Guarantee Association is seeking to borrow $600 million to bail out seven Louisiana insurers that went bust following Hurricane Ida in 2021.

The agency would sell bonds to recoup the money from surviving insurers, a cost that would ultimately fall on Louisiana taxpayers.

Environmental agencies ordered Ppc's, fertilizer and Geismar to clean up more than £1,000,000,000 of hazardous waste and pay one and a half million dollars in fines.

In addition, Ppc's has to secure closure of the site and monitor it for 50 years.

Entergy customers got a note in the mail explaining that prices are going up in June.

Now it's been a month and customers are feeling the pinch.

We spoke with both Entergy and Entergy customers about the increased costs and how to manage them.

Got a new.

Window?

I keep my blinds closed.

I want it to be dark and cool in my house.

400 and something dollars for a doggone electric.

Bill on a small 1300 square feet house.

I was angry.

I was very, very angry.

And every time I.

Look at that bill.

I'm angry because I know I'm being cheated.

Denise becomes Entergy.

Bill was about $400 higher than usual for the month of July.

So how much are you paying for your electric bill right now?

Well.

For this mine is 461,074 cent if I pay before the 27th of the month.

But if I pay after a 27 is 480.

$4.82.

Is that normal for you?

Oh, no, no, no, no, not at all.

Beckham's bill is broken down into four parts.

First, her base electric bill, which is about $228.

Rider and recovery costs bring that up to $377.41.

Then Entergy factors in her gas bill.

And finally, there's extra added franchise fees for usage and gas.

Then you have city sales tax.

Which added an extra $45.34.

Now, this these these other.

Charges.

And adds up.

Wasn't there last year all that wasn't all that the extra $45 wasn't there last year.

So this is all brand new.

This is all brand new.

BICKHAM says those costs weren't there two years ago.

This bill was December 2020.

It was $88.62.

So what are we paying for here?

As you can see, there's no extra fees.

There is.

$61.

And 62 sent in electric fees.

And $20 in gas.

Is Bickham isn't the only New Orleans resident facing higher charges.

Entergy customers all over the state are experiencing price hikes.

Customers are being charged for the repairs that were made following the most recent hurricanes.

Entergy did what it had to in order to repair the electric system, bringing our communities back to a sense of normalcy and help the economy of our state.

And those charges related to the most recent hurricanes are the charges that are being that are being seen on June bills as it relates to the storm restoration cost.

David Freese, a spokesperson for Entergy, says the company is using a method called securitization, which is a fancy way of saying Entergy customers will pay more over the course of 15 years to recoup money for hurricane damage.

But this isn't the only reason bills are going up.

Natural gas is more expensive to purchase, which means power is more expensive to produce.

The average increase related to the natural gas fuel adjustment charge was to be $15 for a residential customer using 1000 kilowatt hours.

Again, that was for the June bills as it relates to the storm securitization cost.

We are expecting it to be around 9 to $10 a month for a residential customer, again using 1000 kilowatt hours, and that would be 9 to $10 a month for the next 15 years.

Free says the last additional cost is coming from increased usage.

I say the highest comfortable temperature because look comfort's going to vary by household and we know that not everyone will be able to keep their thermostat at 78 degrees.

But please consider that every degree below 78 can potentially add 3% to your bill.

So if you crank it down from 78 degrees to 75, you potentially already added 9% to your bill.

The power company says they don't know exactly when costs will return to normal.

But right now we can't foresee how long prices will be as high as they are for the storm.

Securitization cost in particular.

We know that those will be on customer bills for the next 15 years.

Entergy is providing resources for people struggling with high cost.

You can apply for payment assistance programs online.

But become worries that some people can't wait that long.

I mean, this is going to run people out.

A Louisiana in New Orleans because you can't afford to stay.

One of the big stories of the week, the global heat warming.

London 104 degrees.

Paris, 104 degrees.

Temperatures they never see.

We had record heat here in Louisiana in June and we're used to heat.

But what it's also done is raise the water temperatures.

Lake Pontchartrain, 95 degrees.

The Gulf of Mexico also elevated a bit.

So Dr. Paul Miller, LSU hurricane specialist, not what you want to hear as we're in an anticipated busy hurricane season, though we haven't seen it yet.

And approaching the peak point of that season.

Yeah, that's absolutely right.

So as people around Louisiana know, August, September, October, those are kind of our peak hurricane months, even though June and July have been a little bit quiet so far this year.

Really what feels like quiet compared to the last couple of years is a little bit just closer to normal.

Yeah.

And I can hear people saying, oh, we haven't seen anything yet, so maybe that means we're off the hook.

Not so.

Yeah, that's a little bit of wishful thinking, and I even want to think that way too.

But if you actually kind of look at the long term averages, we actually don't see our first hurricane normally until early August, and that's still about two weeks away.

And again, your data for the Gulf of Mexico that was developed by you and the LSU researchers is all pointing to about six storms in the Gulf this season.

Yep, absolutely.

So we kind of produce our own seasonal forecast using some forecast air temperatures about four miles above our heads.

And based on those projections, we anticipate six storms in the Gulf.

It would have been nice to maybe get one or two of those out of the way in June and July before, you know, the sea surface temperatures really ramp up for the rest of the year.

But those forecasts remain unchanged.

And even some of the broader Atlantic forecast are still anticipating an active hurricane season.

Can a change in sea surface temperature of even two degrees or one and a half degrees?

Can that make much of a difference in a hurricane output?

Mm hmm.

Yeah, well, it absolutely can.

And what's probably even more important to the storm is how deep that that warm layer extends beneath the water.

So sometimes during these big heat blast, we can really crank up our sea surface temperatures.

What can maybe is more important for the hurricane, actually, is how far beneath the surface that's able to progress.

Right.

Because it turns up the water and if it's all warm at some depth, that's even worse of a story.

Which is another reason why it's kind of nice to have a few storms earlier in the year because they're going to promote some of that mixing across the Gulf and take some of those really hot sea surface temperatures and maybe bring up some cooler water from below.

Nice to have that.

We haven't had that yet.

So what's ahead again?

There's concern.

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, we still have an active hurricane season.

We have the middle of the season coming up, still ahead of us.

Even when we look back at some of the historical analogs, that's kind of our another way that we'll forecast storms.

We look at years in the past that kind of look similar to our current year.

And they were above average as well.

So we think there's still some more storms coming down the pike.

As you look at this is data, data that can sometimes change as the say, the next few weeks go along.

You continue to look at things and can you ever make an adjustment?

Mm hmm.

So that certainly can happen.

Although, really, the way that these forecasts are developed, they'll look at things like sea surface temperatures globally.

Right.

And so the global patterns of sea surface temperatures really don't vary on the scale of 2 to 3 weeks, that kind of thing.

So really a lot of the way that those those forecasts look now or that those patterns look now will still be much the same headed into peaks.

You can see I'm looking for any out we possibly.

As our most.

People could get.

Dr. Paul Miller, thank you so much.

Sure.

Appreciate it always.

Yeah, absolutely.

Andre.

Pitfalls are manmade chemicals that industries use to make plastics.

They're nicknamed forever chemicals because they break down very slowly over time.

The Water Collaborative explains their investigation into how much are in our water.

You know, in Louisiana, the New Orleans area, the river parishes, a lot of people are worried about the air quality, but nobody really pays attention to what's going on in the water, even though it's around all of us.

What is what is going on?

Right.

Yeah.

Chemical contamination is not something that we frequently discuss, which is interesting because Cancer Alley is in the area of Baton Rouge to New Orleans, houses over 150 different industrial complexes.

So there's a lot going on that we actually just don't know about.

And the Water Collaborative realized that there's a niche to fill with that.

Essentially, we want to know what's out there.

You can't do anything about something if you don't have the data to back it up.

And so that's really what we wanted to discuss right now nationally.

P Farce is a large conversation.

P stands for Per and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances.

It's a group of over 9000 different manmade chemical compounds.

It's incredibly pervasive at this point, and there's essentially no regulation around it currently.

And we don't really know what the public health risks are fully.

So it's it's a big deal and it's something that the EPA is interested in looking at.

And so we wanted to be a part of that conversation and just kind of see, is it happening in southeastern Louisiana?

Are we experiencing p fast in the water systems and where's that going to potentially affect people's drinking water?

And the short answer is yes.

With this stuff.

I mean, I know you just said that you don't really know what the health risks are, but what's the concern?

I mean, there's some data and research out there that that links it to being potentially carcinogenic.

And we are dealing with Cancer Alley right now.

And so it was something that we really wanted to look at and add to that conversation around.

I think in particular bladder and kidney cancers in particular are linked with with pass.

So where are you finding it?

What water sources?

We did a study on the Mississippi River specifically right now from about Ascension Parish down.

They get their drinking water from the Mississippi River directly.

And so we wanted to know, is it in the river system?

This is not something that can be filtered out through current filtration systems and treatment plants.

And so we wanted to see is it in there and is it potentially getting into people's tap water?

We have not studied tap water in particular at this point.

We hope to do that in the future.

But that's that's kind of where we wanted to start out our process at least.

Yeah, I was thinking about the tap water situation because I live in Baton Rouge and most of the water that we drink, it comes from out of the ground.

It's groundwater.

So is it possible at all that these types of contaminations can end up poisoning that water?

It is possible for that to be happening.

We don't know what that looks like currently.

We didn't study that particularly, so I can't speak to it.

But there is evidence in other areas where groundwater systems are being infiltrated with plastic and it's pervasive.

And so if it sinks into the aquifer, it could be a potential hazard.

All right.

So I know that you go out and you test for these things, but how exactly are you doing that?

So river access for our particular study was a huge issue, as we know, with our levee systems.

It's not something you can't just like go and walk over to the river in many places.

Also, a lot of industries in on the river system, including, you know, the levee areas.

And so we scouted areas all up and down from Point Cooper Parish to Orleans Parish.

And basically we decided on 36 different points that we could we could actually test for.

We can access the river pretty easily there downriver from some industrial facilities, also down river from wastewater treatment plants, because, again, public water systems can't filter this out even in wastewater treatment systems.

P force is something that's found in a lot of a lot of products, household products, but particularly things such as Teflon and Nonstick cookware.

And so when people are actually washing their dishes, some of that is scraping off, going into the water systems and going out through water treatment facilities back into the river systems.

And so it's just kind of a cycle where this stuff is bio accumulate in the environment.

It's predicted that about 98 to 99% of Americans have passed running through their bloodstreams.

How the Mississippi River begins as a tiny brook.

But the Gulf quickly becomes the centerpiece of the second largest watershed in the world.

What's currently happening in the Delta proves why it's nicknamed the Mighty Mississippi.

Andre Moreau has that story.

Part of Louisiana's Coastal Master plan is to divert river water to rebuild the coast, a multi-billion dollar proposition down near Buras, the river has done its own diversion project, and it's a real life study of what can be achieved.

How did this thing happen?

Well, it really happened on its own.

There was a channel here and has been a channel here for quite some time, but it's been relatively small.

Brenda's executive director of the CPRA says nature and the power of the river has allowed this channel to widen greatly.

These satellite pictures give you a current look of Neptune past, and it shows how naturally diverted water and sediment deliver what's needed to rebuild land.

It's a real opportunity for us to to learn about the power of the river we see across our coast, whether it's the Wax Lake Outlet, the Jeff La Delta downstream from Neptune Pass, of course, in the Venice area, the power and the vigor of the river really to deliver sediment, to restore our wetlands, to increase wildlife populations, affect fish populations and so forth in a real positive way.

And this is a significant amount of river water that's being released east of the river into the Breton Sound Basin for it to sort of do this on its own, make its own decision and decide that, you know what, more water needs to go here and enlarge this pass and then the power of it again to deliver the sediment, freshwater and nutrients to an area that is really benefiting from it at this point.

And if you look to your right, you'll see where the levee used to be.

Captain Ryan Lambert has worked on the river for more than 40 years and runs a hunting and fishing guide service out of Buras.

He knows firsthand the power of the river.

The west side of the river has been completely cut off from Spanish.

From Spanish past and read past all the way toward the west.

Is completely cut off from the river versus over here because of the hurricane.

Camille in 1969 opened up some diversions that opened up the river to this part of the world and to watch it grow.

And my heart is warm when I'm on that side of the river.

I mean, it's incredible to see what's happening as important as it is to replenish land.

There's a delicate balance the Corps of Engineers has to consider to keep commerce on the river strong.

But we have been in discussions with them about this and what their plans are for it, and their plans are to somehow reduce the flow through this pass at this point in time because of its effect primarily on the navigation channel, which they are required to maintain, of course, and increase sedimentation within the set of the navigation channel that has to be dredged and disposed of in some way.

In addition to its effect of on on steerage for the ships that are traveling up and down river, it's important not just because of the crisis that we're facing here in Louisiana from a land loss perspective and how that's affecting our fisheries, our wildlife, our communities and so forth.

But that ecosystem that is around the navigation and flood control system, right, that is the river.

It protects it.

Without the wetlands adjacent to that river, it's much more vulnerable to hurricanes, storm surges and other natural and manmade perturbations that it wouldn't be otherwise.

But what fascinates you about this and what's being built there?

They're kind of two main things I think, that really fascinate me about this.

One is the the scaling or the scalability of how water and sediment move, whether we're talking about 120 cubic feet per second or volume, the water at Neptune Pass or just a trickle again, running in the in the gutter along the street to your house.

Those patterns are all the same.

The physics and the the movement of that water and the power that it has or or scalable from very large to very, very small.

I do think it's important for us to to try to, again, balance the needs of the the users of the river.

Again, flow control, navigation and ecosystem restoration.

The greatest thing about this, this Neptune pass, it gives us a ability to just see Mother Nature from its infancy starting on brand new diversion that big.

We can take most of Louisiana back.

We can't take it all back.

It's just impossible.

But it's not about us.

And our generation is about future generations.

It's about my great grandchildren seeing what I've seen.

That's all that's important to me.

And if we can preserve this opportunity, preserve some of the benefits that we're seeing or we hope to see, we think we might see a Neptune pass.

You know, we're working very closely with the Corps of Engineers to try to encourage that kind of thinking in that way of managing this this past.

Thank you so much, Andre.

Native American tribes across the state have been celebrating their culture this summer.

We close tonight with a story about the Kushida tribe and Alan Parrish.

When we drive here into the piney woods of Delta in Louisiana and you come upon the Kushida tribe.

Well, a lot of times people think of Kushida and they think of our business down the road casino.

However, just a few miles away, the birthplace of the Kushida tribe is right here.

What we do here is we employ about 250 people.

Most of those are tribal members.

We offer services from health care, police and fire, gymnasium, I.T., education.

There's a whole list of things that operate here.

It's our sovereign nation within the United States.

So we have a whole police.

We have a court system.

We have a convenience store, complete with a large herd of buffalo out back.

We try to teach our children from a very young age to respect, you know, who you are, learn who you are, and then pass on that tradition to the next generation as they get older.

And that's the only way we'll be able to keep our identity, is to learn our language, learn our stories, learn our arts, you know, arts and crafts that we traditionally have, and then pass that on.

Camp Kakadu is a community experience.

It gathers the youth from our tribe to learn about their culture.

Because not a lot of the the youth are on the tribe.

It opens a whole new world to them that their ancestors had, that we have.

They get to teach others and they get to be proud of their culture and their heritage and where they came from.

And I think it's just a very good experience for beginner dancers like me who get to go out there, get a start and show their community that we want to do something.

We want to represent that.

It is ages from 12 to 16, 17.

It's to mainly have them kids come over when they turn 12.

That to have this camp maybe learning their heritage, their culture and keep it going.

They've they've been demonstrated in different types of stations will be demonstrating.

We have different stations like drum making, jewelry making, basket making language just for you to learn and teach for our youth to teach them.

It's just a way for so that when you come here, it's our people teaching you.

It's our kids teaching you.

We want to keep our language going.

We have maybe 300, maybe still, fluently speaking.

Kushida.

I'm one of them and I know we tend to forget to keep our language going.

So we had made a mistake not teaching them that we're trying to bring it back and make it keep it going.

I'm actually going to school.

I'm going to be a history major.

And I'm going to learn my language and come back and preserve our culture.

That's my plan.

The Kushida we exist that a lot of people don't know that there is tribes in Louisiana that we are here.

There's a lot of us.

We know who we are and we're still here, still learning and teaching.

One thing I want people to know is that we're still here in we still have a good shot of people here, because when you go out of town or they don't realize that we're here, so we are still here and we're still growing.

What a wonderful story.

And that's the end of our show this week.

Remember, you can watch anything, anytime, wherever you are with our PBS app.

You can catch LPB News and public affairs shows as well as other Louisiana programs.

You've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.

For everyone here at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Kara St. Cyr until next time, That's the state we're in.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and.

Installing new technology to prevent outages before they.

Happen.

Together, together, together.

We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.