State health officials certify N.O. water is safe for drinking  

By JOE GYAN JR.

jgyan@theadvocate.com

New Orleans bureau

NEW ORLEANS -- The state's decision to certify tap water in a large chunk of New Orleans as fit to drink was a painstaking process that yielded "a few bad samples" but culminated with a series of consistently good results, a state health official said Friday.

"This wasn't done overnight. This is something we had been working on for weeks," Doug Vincent, chief engineer for the Louisiana Office of Public Health, said.

State health officials announced Thursday that tap water was safe to drink on the city's east bank from the Jefferson Parish line to the Industrial Canal.

The announcement came two days after New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin once again urged state and federal agencies to join the city's Sewerage & Water Board in certifying the water as fit to drink. The mayor said state and federal officials were sending mixed messages about the quality of the city's drinking water.

The Office of Public Health, which enforces the federal Clean Water Act in Louisiana, signed off on the results Thursday.

Vincent said the state certification was based on a series of tests performed by the Sewerage & Water Board Sept. 30, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The board, using state-approved methods, has been testing across the east bank for weeks, he noted.

Vincent said state health officials were looking for good sample results, good chlorine residual in the water and good water pressure. They found all three.

"It took quite a number of samples. We reached a point where they were consistent. We reached a point where we felt comfortable," he said, adding that "we had gotten a few bad samples along the way."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concurred in the state's decision to lift the boil order and certify the drinking water as safe, Vincent said.

Monitoring will continue, he said.

Marvin Russell, the Sewerage & Water Board's water purification chief, still says residents and businesses should allow hot and cold faucets to run for 10 to 15 minutes before drinking the water for the first time. Residents also should allow icemakers to run a few cycles before using the cubes, he said.

Potable water still is not available in eastern New Orleans or the Lower 9th Ward, two of the hardest-hit areas. Water on the city's west bank already had been certified as potable.

A day after the water was certified as safe, Children's Hospital near the Mississippi River in uptown New Orleans announced Friday that it will reopen Monday. The hospital had been ready to open once vital services, including safe drinking water, were restored.

The Treasure Chest Casino on Lake Pontchartrain in Kenner also will reopen Monday, six weeks to the day after Hurricane Katrina slammed the area.

Children's Hospital, which suffered little or no damage or looting during and after Katrina, had set up outpatient clinics two weeks after the hurricane hit to treat patients who were living in Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

Its outpatient center in Metairie opened Tuesday. All emergency, surgical and medical services will resume at the New Orleans hospital Monday. Katrina marked the first time in the hospital's 50-year history that services stopped at the main campus.

Children's Hospital, which evacuated 65 patients to other hospitals in Louisiana and across the nation after Katrina hit, treats more than 56,000 patients annually from every parish in Louisiana and throughout the country.

The Treasure Chest on the east bank of Jefferson Parish closed Aug. 27, two days before Katrina made landfall. The gambling boat, which was open 24 hours a day before Katrina, will be open from noon until 2 a.m. but will expand and hopefully be at full capacity soon, Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming Corp., the casino's owner, said. The Treasure Chest is one of the parish's largest employers and the source of $5 million to $8 million a year for Kenner's coffers.

Two of the four casinos in the New Orleans area remain closed -- Harrah's New Orleans downtown casino and the Belle of Orleans riverboat. The Boomtown Belle on the west bank of Jefferson Parish in Harvey reopened Monday.

In other post-Katrina news in the New Orleans metropolitan area:

The state Department of Transportation and Development announced Friday that toll collection will resume Monday on the Crescent City Connection bridge and fare collection will resume on two ferries -- the Gretna/Jackson Avenue and Algiers/Canal Street -- operated by the CCC.

The CCC spans the Mississippi River and connects the east and west banks of New Orleans. Tolls will be waived for National Guard and emergency vehicles.

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway was supposed to resume collecting tolls Monday as well, but the Causeway Commission decided against it Friday. Officials from the Causeway, which stretches from Metairie on the lake's south shore to the Mandeville-Covington area on the north shore, and the CCC suspended toll collections before Katrina hit.

Cox Communications said all services will be restored by this weekend to customers in Jefferson Parish and neighboring St. Charles Parish.

The Orleans Parish school system said public schools on the parish's west bank will reopen Nov. 1. Displaced students will be taken. There is no word yet on when public schools on the east bank of the parish will reopen.

The Gretna-based 24th Judicial District Court (Jefferson Parish) said it will reopen Tuesday.

The Plaquemines Parish School Board said it has registered 2,300 students to begin classes Oct. 17 in the Belle Chasse area.

A meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Belle Chasse to begin helping Plaquemines residents with stress- and trauma-related problems. The meeting will be the first of many and is open to the public.

In New Orleans, the main post office on Loyola Avenue remains closed because of building damage. Postal officials are continuing to expand mail services in the city by providing over-the-counter service to additional zip codes and establishing temporary mail pickup locations.

Customers are advised to check online at www.usps.com for the latest information.

Power has been restored to 42 percent of all New Orleans customers, with the Central Business District and French Quarter and neighborhoods in Uptown and Algiers making up the majority of those customers. Gas has been restored to 39 percent of the city's customers, including the Uptown area between St. Charles Avenue and the river.

Electricity has been restored to 99 percent of Jefferson Parish, with Grand Isle accounting for the remaining 1 percent.

In Jefferson Parish, residents will not be billed for garbage and recycling collection services for the month of September -- because of Katrina and the fact Waste Management continues to have serious difficulty resuming normal collection service.

The parish is working with FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to bring in additional resources to help the parish collect garbage. Parish officials say the storm debris collection process will take several months to complete.

There are several million cubic yards of debris to be picked up, making it "the largest clean up in U.S. history," according to the parish's Web site.

In St. Bernard Parish, a mandatory dusk-to-dawn curfew remains in effect. The parish is dry and open to all residents, but 911 emergency services are not available and parish government officials say they do not have sufficient life-sustaining supplies to support the public.

Officials say school classes will be held in temporary quarters once the parish receives temporary travel trailers from FEMA for residents to live in. All mail that was destined for St. Bernard but could not be delivered to residents and businesses because of Katrina must be picked up at the Covington post office. n In Plaquemines Parish, roads from Belle Chasse to Venice have been opened. Water is on the road at Myrtle Grove. The parish's Web site warns residents of "heavy mosquito, insect and snake problems."

There is no running water or electricity, and no stores or gas stations below Belle Chasse.

More than 200 animals have been rescued and are being housed and fed at the Council on Aging building on Main Street in Belle Chasse. The animals are waiting to be reunited with their owners.

Donations to "Project Rebuild Plaquemines" are growing. Chevron/Texaco and the Chevron Oronite plant donated $200,000 to the effort Thursday. Funds will be used to help the people of Plaquemines and the parish in recovery efforts to rebuild.