Venetian Isles drinking water troubles persist

by David Hammer, The Times-Picayune

Four weeks after Hurricane Gustav sent storm surge into some parts of far-eastern New Orleans, the Sewerage & Water Board is still struggling to figure out how to make water potable again in the Venetian Isles subdivision, and patience in the 400-family neighborhood is wearing thin.

The city issued a boil-water advisory for Venetian Isles on Sept. 15, four days after the Sewerage & Water Board initally reported to the state Department of Health and Hospitals that testing indicated possible contamination in the Venetian Isles drinking water.

During the following two weeks, water officials attempted to flush the water lines and add more disinfectant to water in the lines in an attempt to remove the contamination indicator, but repeated tests showed the indicator organisms still in the water.

City Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, chairwoman of the council's Recovery Committee, blasted Sewerage & Water Board representative Robert Jackson today when he warned residents that the board would begin a more aggressive chlorine disinfection of the system tomorrow.

"I don't understand why we didn't do that two weeks ago," Willard-Lewis said.

"This is something we're doing in addition. Basically we're ratcheting up, rather than dealing with it in our normal fashion," Jackson said.

"Well, after two weeks we really should have been in aggressive mode," Willard-Lewis said.

Ed Hadley, president of the Venetian Isles Neighborhood Association, said the uncertainty over drinking water seems worse than in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He asked Jackson to have the board perform more tests next to homes and said the families aren't worried about privacy issues.

The tests measure the number of colonies of coliforms, a group of bacteria that are mostly harmless, but have been found to indicate that other harmful bacteria or viruses might be in the water.

If present, the harmful contaminants can cause a variety of illnesses, including diarrhea and nausea, but are killed by boiling, followed by the addition of a small amount of disinfectant, such as bleach.

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