| INSIDE THE RIVER PARISHES |
PAGE 8
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013
Study aims to solve LaPlace water problems BY RYAN ARENA L’OBSERVATEUR
LAPLACE – Among the many effects that Hurricane Issac brought upon St. John the Baptist Parish was to demonstrate the vulnerability of its water system, a problem that parish leaders are committed to solving. Earlier this year, the St. John the Baptist Water Infrastructure Committee was formed to attempt to develop and cement viable short-term and longterm plans for the water system. The committee, which consisted of members of the St. John Parish Administration, Utilities Department, Parish Engineers, FEMA and Consulting Engineers, held a series of meetings in the first quarter of the year, culminating in a report put together for the
Refurbishing the parish’s water towers is one of the actions suggested by a recent study done of St. John Parish’s water supply.
Parish Council. There are three main water system facilities in the parish: one for Ruddock and LaPlace (LaPlace Water Plant), one for
Reserve, Garyville and Mt. Airy (Lions Water Treatment Plant), and one for Edgard (Edgard Water Treatment Plant). The report detailed
several interim actions that are planned for completion by the second quarter of 2014, including: •Installing a new pump at well number two in Ruddock and rehabilitating the existing pump, providing for a back-up pump in case the first fails. •Installing a 12-inch connection on River Road to the St. Charles Parish water system to provide an alternate water supply for the east bank of St. John should the Ruddock or Lions water sources fail. The contract for this task in the amount of $74,460 was awarded to WGS Contractors Inc. It allows the parish to receive 1 to 1.5 million gallons of water per day from St. Charles Parish in the
event of a loss of water during emergencies. •Reconnecting the Lions and LaPlace water system on River Road, providing additional water capacity. •New filters at the Lions Water Treatment Plant as well as an intake pump station upgrade. The plant now has a 250,000-gallon tank, part of more than $1 million worth of renovations. •Altitude valve replacements at four elevated storage tanks (Courthouse, Belle Terre, Walnut, Reserve). The committee also established two longterm plans, focusing on redundancy and reliability. The first is in the preliminary stages of implementation, establishing a
waterline connection between the Reserve/ Garyville/Mt. Airy and Edgard water systems, allowing water to be supplied from each side of the Mississippi River in case of failure in either system. The second is an evaluation of the LaPlace water system. Specifically, the option of using Mississippi River water as the water source for the LaPlace system versus the current well system in Ruddock will be weighed. The report notes that historically, the other two Mississippi River water supplies for St. John have remained operable during emergency situations and provided water. Options to do this include drilling another well in Ruddock; expanding the Lions Plant to supply LaPlace; or adding a new Mississippi River intake pump station. $500,000 worth of improvements to the Parish Lift Stations was funded through a 2010 bond issue. Improvements include intrusion monitoring, automatic controls, water-level indicators, alarms and shut down features to minimize overflows. A back-up generator that allows automatic start up of generators should the Edgard Water Plant lose power is also expected to be completed by September.