Key facts
- Affected area
- New Orleans East Bank
- Incident date
- April 23
- Letters sent
- July 22
- Violation
- Turbidity exceeded maximum allowed for one hour
- Plant
- Carrollton Water Treatment Plant
- Health risk
- No bacteria found; turbidity alone has no specific health impacts
Background
Residents on New Orleans' East Bank may have received a letter in the mail from the Sewerage and Water Board notifying them of a drinking water requirement violation. The letters were sent on July 22 and reached some residents this week.
The incident in question happened on April 23. The letter describes that for one hour, some of the drinking water treated at the Carrollton Water Treatment Plant exceeded maximum allowed turbidity, or cloudiness, limits.
Dr. Melissa Gonzales, an environmental health sciences professor at Tulane, explained what this means: "They have measurements of turbidity to estimate and kind of evaluate how well they are doing with treating their water, particularly cleaning out large particles, essentially filtration."
Current situation
Some residents were left wondering if they should be worried that they consumed this water. The short answer is no. WDSU reached out to the Sewerage and Water Board for more information on the incident. They said water samples taken in April did not indicate any bacteria, and turbidity alone does not carry specific health impacts.
The letter did say that people who are elderly, pregnant, severely immunocompromised, or have an infant may be at an increased risk of being impacted by this. With the incident happening three months ago, Gonzales said it should now just serve as a reminder to those at risk.
"So this is kind of an alert to let you know if you fall into those categories that maybe you should be paying attention to your water quality more often, maybe you should filter it, maybe you should use distilled water, maybe you should consider other filtration methods," she said.
| Event | Date | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Incident | April 23 | Turbidity exceeded limits for one hour |
| Letters sent | July 22 | Mailed to East Bank residents |
| Letters received | This week | Some residents received them |
| Council vote | This week | On ordinance reforming Sewerage and Water Board |
Impacts
The Sewerage and Water Board sent WDSU a statement which in part said: "This was an isolated, non-recurring issue. It does, however, underscore the need for continued and increased investment in the Carrollton Water Treatment Plant, consistent with the goals outlined in the Water Quality Master Plan."
As far as the timing of the letters, WDSU reached out to Councilmember Aimee McCarron. "We are aware of this issue and have heard from several residents about the letters. The ordinance reforming Sewerage and Water Board’s governing structure requires a more streamlined communication process for these — and all other — types of customer notifications. We will be reviewing these processes as the Council takes the reins over the next few weeks," she stated.
The council is set to vote on the aforementioned ordinance this week.
Future outlook
Scenario analysis: The possibilities below are not certain predictions.
If the council passes the ordinance this week, the Sewerage and Water Board may adopt a more streamlined communication process for customer notifications, which could reduce delays in informing residents about future water quality issues.
Depending on the outcome of the review, residents may see improved transparency and faster alerts. However, if investment in the Carrollton Water Treatment Plant is not increased, similar isolated incidents could occur in the future, though the board has stated this was non-recurring.
For now, at-risk individuals are advised to consider filtration or distilled water, but the overall health risk remains low as no bacteria were detected in April samples.
Source: wdsu.com
