That was the word from state officials on Thursday and a huge boost to the effort to repopulate a desolate city as quickly as possible.
For many families considering a return to New Orleans , the lack of water suitable for drinking and cooking was a major reason to stay away. Now the problem has disappeared on the city's east bank from the Jefferson Parish line to the Industrial Canal .
The lack of potable water several weeks ago was at the heart of U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen's reluctance to embrace Mayor Ray Nagin's accelerated plan for repopulating the city.
Potable water is still not available in eastern New Orleans or the Lower 9th Ward, two of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Algiers has had drinkable water since before the storm.
"It's something we're very excited about," Nagin spokeswoman Sally Forman said Thursday. "It's something the mayor has been pushing for, because the Sewerage & Water Board testing was showing good signs, but we needed the regulatory agency to sign off on it. We hope it makes it easier for citizens in New Orleans to live in their own homes, for those who still have homes."
Some evacuees, particularly those with kids, said the availability of clean water might be enough to bring them home.
Nicole Frilot, a cashier at an airport gift shop who owns a house in the Carrollton area, has been staying at the RiverCenter in Baton Rouge with her three children, aged 3, 5 and 11.
Provided her relatives tell her that her home appears habitable, Frilot said, "Yeah, we'll go back," upon hearing about that the water had been certified potable once again.
Business owners who have been trying to make a go of it without clean water also cheered the news.
"It'll make my life less expensive," said Gary Wollerman, owner of the French Quarter barbecue joint Zydeque, which re-opened last Friday. Wollerman has had to wash pots and pans in bottled water - in sinks that hold 60 gallons at a time -- and serve canned soft drinks to patrons instead of fountain cokes, he said.
"On the consumer side of it, if you pay a buck fifty, you normally get free refills, but we can't do that with the cans," Wollerman said. "So it's a better deal. Also, in a barbecue restaurant, people expect unlimited sweet and unsweetened tea. And we haven't been able to brew it. So now we can kind of meet guests' expectations."
The state certification was based on a series of tests conducted by the water board over the past five days using state-approved methods. Forty-three samples were tested from sites around the east bank. All samples tested negative for coliform colonies, said Marvin Russell Jr., the water board's water purification superintendent.
The state Office of Public Health - which is charged with enforcing the federal Clean Water Act in Louisiana - signed off on the results, according to chief engineer Doug Vincent.
Since Sept. 12, Russell said, about 350 water samples have been taken from across the city, mostly from fire hydrants. Of those, nine were positive for coliform, with one sample positive for fecal coliform, an indicator of contamination by sewage. All the formerly positive sites have been retested and found to be negative, Russell said, adding that recent national media reports claiming city water was "polluted with sediment, toxins and bacteria" were baseless.
It's been a long road to recovery for the water board. Two days after the storm, the board's water purification plant, on South Claiborne Avenue near the Jefferson Parish line, lost power due to flooding. For more than a week, no water at all could be delivered through city pipes to homeowners and businesses.
When service was restored, the water was deemed unsafe for drinking, cooking and bathing because of massive leaks in the system's 1,600 mile maze of pipes, which resulted in a loss of water pressure and the possibility of impure water seeping into pipes. Some board officials speculated at the time that it could be three months before water quality could be guaranteed.
Since then, water board workers - aided by private contractors, as well as public utility crews from Lafayette and Little Rock , Ark. , among other places - have been busy making repairs to the system. Most of the leaks are being detected visually, rather than through testing, Russell said.
A lot of work remains to be done.
Russell said that the east bank system is pumping out about 100 million gallons a day -- less than the typical pre-Katrina level of 115 million gallons, but far more than he would expect given the slim population.
Not only are there few customers, the area east of the Industrial Canal has been "valved off," meaning no water at all is being pumped there.
If the system weren't leaking, Russell guessed it might be pumping from 30 to 50 million gallons a day with the current population. But he said it's difficult to form an accurate estimate without knowing how many people are in town.
Despite the persistent leakage, Russell said water pressure in the system is basically normal, at about 60 pounds per square inch.
Though the water is now considered safe, Russell said that residents and business owners should let both hot and cold faucets run for 10 to 15 minutes before drinking it for the first time. He also said residents should allow icemakers to run "a few cycles" before using the ice.
Russell said work will be stepped up in the area east of the Industrial Canal , but he could not estimate when that portion of the system would be activated. Businesses in that part of town are eager for service, he said.
"I had a guy muscling me the other day who has a business out on Michoud Boulevard , wanting to know when he'd have water," Russell said. "It's like a drunk driver crashing into the bayou, and before the car's even been pulled from the water, he's asking the mechanic, 'When will you have it fixed?'"
Staff writer Susan Finch contributed to this report.
Gordon Russell can be reached at (504) 232-6759. |
