Water treated in Algiers for the city’s West Bank maintained a “B” grade for 2023. That’s the same grade it received during the statewide grading system’s first year, in 2022.
But the water treated by Carrollton Water Works for the city’s East Bank was given a “D,” downgraded from its “C” grade in 2022.
The Carrollton plant received its barely-passing grade because the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO) did not submit enough quality tests, which are required because they can detect contaminants in drinking water. Those violations put it out of compliance with federal regulations.
Yet a poor water system grade does not mean drinking water is unsafe, say officials from the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH). Rather, they say, the “D” grade indicates that, to keep operating safely, the water utility needs major improvement or upgrades.
Many of LDH’s point deductions reflect infrastructure deficiencies, for aging equipment, and administrative deficiencies, specifically oversight of staff who were fudging data or not performing required tests.
Certainly, SWBNO staff who neglected to test drinking water or falsified results put the public at risk, by potentially exposing New Orleanians who were drinking water from their home faucets to bacteria and pathogens.
But there were no reports of sickness linked to those past lapses. And SWBNO asserts that it has trained its water-quality staff to avoid similar problems in the future. Still, since the agency is offering free Brita water pitchers to customers, administrators are perhaps acknowledging that customers may be uneasy about drinking water from a D-rated plant, or in a city where lead pipes still are far too common.
“SWBNO is required by law to notify the public when water is unsafe to use,” said Rebecca Malpass, director of policy and research for The Water Collaborative. “LDH’s Carrollton Water Works grade should not cause residents immediate alarm, but it does highlight the need for much improvement from the utility.”
The state health agency has long monitored safe drinking water in the state, by monitoring drinking water monthly for certain contaminants and quarterly or annually for others. LDH also conducts physical inspections of water plants and investigates complaints about drinking water. Whenever the city of New Orleans, or any other municipality, issues a boil-water advisory, it sends water samples to LDH and consults with the agency before lifting the advisory. Over the past two years, LDH, through its Safe Drinking Water Program, has released “grades” for 940 community water systems.
The Safe Drinking Water Program’s new grading system gives the public more insight into the drinking water that flows out of faucets across the state. The system, authorized by the state legislature in 2021, was “a good first step into seeing what’s wrong with our system and how we can improve,” said Taya Fontenette, policy and research coordinator at The Water Collaborative, a grassroots organization focused on ensuring equal access to water in greater New Orleans.
The state health agency found plenty in the system that needed improvement. During June 2023, the Sewerage and Water Board did not measure enough samples for E. coli, a fecal contaminant. This lapse in testing occurred during a larger period of missed and falsified testing at SWBNO, first reported in November by Matt McBride for the Louisiana Illuminator and WVUE Fox 8.
Last year, throughout the year, according to the Louisiana Illuminator, at least five SWBNO employees fabricated data for routine water tests that measure whether the water contained sufficient levels of chlorine, which disinfects drinking water and prevents the growth of harmful bacteria, including E. coli.
Carrollton also was cited for violating state and federal drinking-water regulations in September and October 2023 when SWBNO staff failed to continuously monitor for disinfectants such as chlorine. They also failed to continuously monitor for turbidity, a measure of water quality that ensures suspended solids are properly removed.
A recent Consumer Confidence Report on water quality confirmed what the Illuminator found during its investigation, that SWBNO sample collectors falsified the location and records of some drinking-water samples. In response, the SWBNO announced that those employees would no longer collect drinking water samples and that new sample collectors would receive additional training and be monitored more closely by GPS.
Much-needed improvements at Carrollton
Each year, the SWBNO treats approximately 54 billion gallons of Mississippi River water. On the east bank of Orleans Parish, about 300,000 residents receive drinking water from Carrollton Water Works. On the West Bank, about 53,000 people are connected to Algiers Water Works.
The purification process starts as water is first pulled from the river, when SWBNO adds chemicals that cause solids suspended in the river water to clump together. Then large mechanical paddles mix the water, to help the sediments settle. From there, the water travels to large clarifiers, where the settled particles move to the bottom, forming a sludge layer that is periodically removed and returned to the river.
Next, SWBNO staff disinfect the water with chlorine and ammonia. The water purifies in a second settling basin, where lime is added to make the water less corrosive to plumbing. Fluoride is added to the water before it is further purified through rapid gravity filters. Sand and anthracite in the filters remove any leftover suspended particles in the water.
It’s a complex, precise process and at nearly every step, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires testing.
Yet much of the equipment that purifies the water is more than a century old. The Carrollton Water Treatment Plant was last renovated in 1959. Many of its parts, including the steam and combustion power-generating turbines, were built in 1915 and rely on custom-made repairs.
It’s also unclear whether the facility’s unpressurized water reservoir – which holds the city’s drinking water – is sufficiently sealed. Leaks beneath the reservoir, known as the clearwell, went uninvestigated for years, raising concerns about the potential for contaminated groundwater to enter the tank.
Earlier this year, SWBNO began work on a Water Quality Master Plan to modernize the facility, mitigate climate-change impacts and incorporate new EPA guidelines. The utility anticipates that the planning process will take 18 months.
To distribute drinking water and maintain pressure within pipes requires that drinking-water pumps are connected to reliable power. That has long been lacking at the SWBNO, leading to repeated boil-water advisories in recent years from dips in pressure that could have allowed contaminants to enter pipes.
In theory, the city’s drinking-water grades should improve once work is complete on a new long-needed power complex on the grounds of Carrollton Water Works.
Once complete, the dedicated substation will be able to draw power from Entergy’s transmission grid, with the help of three static frequency changers, which can convert modern electricity into a type of power used by the older turbines. A modern turbine generator will also help to produce reliable, efficient backup power.
The new dedicated substation is designed to continue working through a grid failure, such as the citywide blackout during Hurricane Ida. Though slated to come online next summer, its plans are scaled back for now, because of a state funding mixup that left the SWBNO $29 million short of what it needs to complete the project.
The agency also lost points in the 2023 LDH review because it failed to submit a rate study and a water complaint log for the Carrollton and Algiers facilities.
A rate study helps determine the cost of water and sewer services and the revenue needed to improve services. SWBNO said that it will publicly address the missing rate studies in the future, as the utility looks at its upcoming financial needs.
A complaint log documents that SWBNO is receiving and resolving customer complaints. The LDH-created form allows SWBNO staff to list customer drinking-water complaints by service address and note both the date that the complaint was received and the date that corrective action was completed.
Massive water loss also had an impact on Carrollton’s “D” water system grade. The Sewerage and Water Board has long been maligned for not being able to properly bill or even understand where all of its water goes, once it’s purified.
In April, the New Orleans Office of Inspector General, the city’s oversight entity for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that SWBNO failed to report quarterly water loss to the City Council as required by law.
Water-loss data has not been submitted since May 2019, when SWBNO reported that New Orleans’ water-distribution system loses about 55% of its daily treated water through leaks in water mains across the city.
Yet the agency points to its Smart Metering Program as a partial solution to that issue, because smart meters – which can be read digitally – are designed to better measure actual water usage and detect leaks in the utility’s 1,610 miles of mains and more than 100,000 service connections. Earlier this year, SWBNO said that the utility is on track to replace roughly half of its meters with smart meters by the end of this year.
And last Friday, July 19, SWBNO completed another task linked to water services, as it announced that it had completed a detailed review of its wastewater consumption charges. Roughly four percent of customers were overcharged due to a technical error and will receive credits back to their accounts.
One last infrastructure issue that needs to be addressed is the replacement of lead pipes.
Lead, a toxic metal harmful to humans, especially children and pregnant women, can enter drinking water when older plumbing materials containing lead corrode. In an attempt to keep lead from leaching into the water from existing lead pipes, SWBNO treats its drinking water for “corrosion control.” But lead flakes can also be dislodged during road construction or pipe replacements. Plus, lead can accumulate in a person’s blood over time, potentially harming the nervous system and affecting learning. According to the EPA, there is no safe level of lead in a child’s blood.
SWBNO has plans to replace its lead and copper service lines following stricter policies from the EPA. According to a May analysis of EPA data from the Natural Resources Defense Council, New Orleans ranked ninth in a list of cities with the most lead pipes that need to be replaced, with 57,000 pipes that still need to be replaced. Within the next few months, by October 16, the utility must create an EPA-required inventory of “legacy lead pipes” that remain within the SWBNO system.
People who want to know whether their water contains lead can contact the SWBNO to pick up testing supplies. Or reach out to The Water Collaborative, which will come to residents’ homes to conduct free lead tests for tap water over the next few months.