The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (“LDEQ”) placed on the Environmental Council of States (“ECOS”) website a link to the following:
State Innovation Video 2024: Louisiana Drone Program (“Video”).
The Video describes LDEQ’s use of drones to help with a number of agency tasks.
ECOS describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders.
The ability of drones to assist in a variety of activities undertaken by state environmental agencies has been expanding for a number of years. Examples of drone use in such activities include:
- Surveillance.
- Enforcement.
- Permit support documentation.
- Waste and landfill inspections.
- Illegal dumping of chemicals, oils, or waste tires.
A prior ECOS report described drones as an important state agency tool because of certain abilities such as:
- Ability to quickly obtain data.
- More effective response to emergencies.
- Ensuring worker safety.
- Improving environmental results.
The Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment launched its Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (i.e., drone) program in the Fall of 2019. A link to the ECOS report describing the program can be found here.
A link to a presentation by Dan Pearson (Chief Information Officer – Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment) at an Arkansas Environmental Federation Webinar can be found here.
The LDEQ Video notes that drones are employed to address activities such as:
- Monitoring chemical leaks.
- Collecting water samples.
- Emergency response.
- Capturing data from air.
- Aerial imaging.
Note that in addition to the use by state environmental agencies, the private sector employs drones for various tasks. For example, Pollution Management, Inc. operates a drone for certain environmental/energy services such as:
- Aerial imagery (i.e., dam/levy inspections).
- Load failures, structure layout, etc.
- Topographic data (civil site layout, flood studies, landfills, industrial site design).
Drones clearly have certain potential inherent advantages in the private sector when it comes to their ability to cost-effectively observe for environmental service assessment purposes large or relatively inaccessible areas.
A link to the LDEQ Drone Video can be found here.
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