LA - Corps to barge 36M gallons of freshwater a day to help areas facing saltwater contamination
Low flow in Mississippi River is allowing salt to threaten drinking water supplies up the river.
Unsafe levels of saltwater may reach many New Orleans-area drinking water intakes by mid-October, forcing officials to scramble for barges that will bring in fresh water from further up the Mississippi in hopes of avoiding contamination of local water supplies.
Gov. John Bel Edwards joined federal, state and local officials at a news conference Friday to explain how they were "making plans for a duration of an event and a severity of an event" that will exceed a similar saltwater intrusion in 1988.
Officials with the Army Corps of Engineers said they've taken the first steps to begin transporting 36 million gallons of river water to the area by barge every day for use by local utilities.
"We just executed the contract to get the initial capacity for 15 million gallons on site next week, and then we are rapidly moving through the Corps of Engineers to obtain more," said Col. Cullen Jones, commander of the Corps' New Orleans office. The barges will range in size from 100,000 gallons to 1 million gallons.
Next week, Edwards said, he will upgrade a declaration of emergency to ensure state agencies can respond to saltwater intrusion. He will also ask FEMA to issue a federal emergency declaration, which he said could help in getting federal funds to help pay for the response.
Based on the most recent estimates, saltwater will reach Belle Chasse on Oct. 13, St. Bernard Parish's main water plant by Oct. 19, the Algiers water plant by Oct. 22, the Carrollton water plant by Oct. 28 and the East Jefferson Parish water plant by Oct. 29, Jones said.
Jones said the present flow of freshwater down the river is about 148,000 cubic feet per second, not strong enough to halt the northward flow of saltwater towards New Orleans. The current flow is only about 10% of what it is when the river is high.
"For us to get above 300,000 cubic feet per second to start pushing it back, we would need to see approximately 10 inches of precipitation across the entire Mississippi Valley," and that's unlikely, according to recent National Weather Service forecasts, Jones said.
Edwards noted it will be several weeks before saltwater will hit heavily populated communities and urged residents not to panic and cause runs on bottled water. He said state officials also have been in touch with stores to assure they restock quickly. Unlike the national shortage of toilet paper during the pandemic, he said, there is no lack of bottled water.
Louisiana Health Officer Joseph Kanter said local water systems will issue warnings if salt levels are predicted to go above 250 parts per million. That would pose a risk to individuals on low-sodium diets, those with high blood pressure, and pregnant women in their third trimester who are at risk of hypertension.
